My sister in law...

Last Sunday the families gathered to celebrate a number of anniversaries being celebrated by my sister in law Sonja. Sonja had organised a barbeque lunch at the Coorparoo Bowls Club. Ever the organiser, she distributed white napkins to serve as placemats and folded paper napkins (serviettes) in red, white and blue.

When it came time for the guest of honour/hostess to give a speech, Sonja explained why this year was a significant one regarding anniversaries.

Firstly, last Sunday was her 71st birthday. Secondly, Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of Sonja arriving in Brisbane with her parents and older sister, after they had emigrated to Australia from Denmark. Sonja reminisced that she could remember the ship ( a Norwegian cruise ship) making its way up the Brisbane River to where the port was then located, right in the city at Petrie Bight. She recalled that she found the houses in Brisbane so colourful after the 'white and grey' of Denmark.
And thirdly, Sunday was just a few days short of the 50 years since she became an Australian citizen. So lots of good reasons to have a celebration as the family all agreed.
The desserts were amazing! The large rectangular cake is a traditional Danish cake...sorry I don't remember the name though! It's layers of sponge cake (like a Victoria sponge cake) with jam.. The chocolate cake was made by a niece of Sonja's, the pavlova was decorated by Sonja and the iced fruit cake with Australia on top was made by our cousin.

Let me tell you a bit more about my lovely sister in law...long before I could ever have imagined marrying into the Goodwin family, I cut out a photo of the Brisbane evening paper, the Telegraph. I had recognised someone from a family that had gone to my primary school. In my teens I kept scrapbooks filled with newspaper cuttings of people I knew even if some didn't know me!! That 'someone' was Keith and his then fiancé Sonja.

They were buying Sonja's wedding shoes. An old Danish custom involved a bride-to-be saving for her wedding shoes, collecting copper coins in the lowest denomination, and storing them in a champagne bottle. In the article (from 1967-68), Sonja explained that she was glad that Australia had new coins after the switch to decimal currency, as the old penny and halfpenny coins would not have fitted in the neck of the bottle.


The shoes, described as 'guipure lace sling backs' cost $10.99. ( so there were at least 1099 cent pieces in that bottle...or so we're told!)

Sonja and my brother in law, not only had teaching careers in Australia (North Queensland and Sydney), but also some time in Canada. They had 2 children and Keith was active in the Jaycees. Then he entered politics  and became Mayor of Cairns in 1988.

Then tragedy struck...Keith was killed in a plane crash in May 1990. In an interview with the New Idea magazine, my elegant and dignified sister in law stated, 'Maybe God was calling a meeting upstairs and he wanted a very good chairman'.

And then Sonja stood for council herself.

Eventually Sonja came back to Brisbane to live, which was great because most of the family is here, and we see her a lot more as a consequence.

 At DH and my wedding in 2004, Sonja caught the bouquet, but no Mr Right has come along...we still often joke with each other about that! lol
The next photo was taken on Sonja's birthday 5 years ago...she came for afternoon tea and brought her own cake!

And finally a photo of me with the youngest guest there last Sunday...little Anthea!

 

Two evening meals out...both totally different!

Back last November, DH and I spent 3 days in North Queensland, visiting family. DH had a few things he particularly wanted to see during our short stay, and one of these was to see a cassowary up close. A cassowary is a native bird which lives in the tropical rainforest areas of FNQ, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and islands in between PNG and Queensland. . They are a similar build to emus but have a colourful 'lump' on their heads. ( they are related to rheas, emus and ostriches)
Lump was my word but apparently it is a 'keratinous skin covered casque' which increases in size with age.

My cousin said that cassowaries could always be seen walking around nearby Etty Bay. She suggested we take a picnic tea down to the bay and DH could get lots of photos of the birds that just might be there. We got there before sundown and it was definitely a beautiful spot for a picnic tea.
The waste bins even have cassowaries emblazoned on them...

Oooh...and there could be other creatures hereabouts too!

It wasn't long before we saw a cassowary striding around the picnic area...

While DH walked around taking photos, my cousin and I set up the picnic table...

Just as we started to eat, all of a sudden a cassowary decided that our food looked too good to pass by...

It was quite insistent; my brave cousin flicked a teatowel at it and eventually it did move away! Phew! I'd heard stories of cassowaries becoming angry and had been know to kick out at people and dogs with their strong legs and feet.
So after that drama, we enjoyed our salad and chicken in peace.

Just before the sun went down, we saw the 'stinger' nets being wound in. Without the nets, people in the far north of the state can't swim in the ocean for a majority of the year because of the dangerous marine stingers.
 Obviously the nets get put out each morning and then brought in each evening.

The next night we were in Cairns as the next day we were flying home. We walked along the waterfront in the late afternoon, enjoying the views...

and the lovely sea breezes!

We decided that somewhere on the waterfront would be a nice place for dinner. DH had always found the RSL club (Returned and Services League) in Cairns to be good, so that's where we went. I think it was one of the nicest RSL clubs that I've ever been to. We chose a table on the footpath but didn't expect any of the drama/entertainment of the previous night. Then I heard bagpipes...and drums! Across the road were some bagpipers and drummers who proceeded to play for the next 30 minutes or so...what fun!

And our food was pretty good too!

 

Remembering...

Way back in July this year, I wrote a post about my friend Jenny who had just been diagnosed with MND (ALS). 

So many of you wrote loving thoughts on this post. The prognosis then was that she would 'have 2 years'. Sadly this was a trifle optimistic, and the disease progressed quite rapidly with Jenny passing early this month.
I was very sad, but I realised that life was getting more and more difficult day by the day for my friend. She had gone into a nursing home and in the last week or so of her life, breathing and swallowing had become difficult and she was in pain. So the fact that she slipped into unconsciousness one night, was transferred to hospital and then slipped away there the next day without regaining consciousness...it was such a blessing.

On the Sunday after Jenny's passing our group of friends met at one of her favourite coffee shops for our regular monthly coffee morning. We shared stories and tears. As a memorial to our friend we all put in $10 each to make a sizeable donation to be sent to the Motor Neurone Association in memory of our friend. 

The funeral was delayed until her son and his family could arrive from the UK and it was held last Wednesday. I was so disappointed that, as things turned out, I would not be in Brisbane as I was visiting family in Far North Queensland.
By a strange coincidence DH and I spent the day visiting memorials to his older brother and 10 others who perished in a plane crash to the west of Cairns in 1990. ( the passengers were all Councillors returning from a Local Government Conference in Airlie Beach, except for the pilot and a nun, Sister Nadia who was given a seat when one of the Councillors decided to drive home. How lucky was he?) 

The first one we visited was the memorial at Tolga on the Atherton Tableland. DH and I were guests when this refurbished memorial was unveiled by the then Governor, in May 2010 which marked the 20th anniversary of the crash.

Some photographs were called for; last time we were here there were too many people around to get some quiet time to read and photograph the plaque.

 

The next memorial we visited was in the Bicentennial Gardens in the town of Mareeba...

There is a memorial near the Cairns Council buildings but this visit, DH took me to the one in an old Pioneer Cemetery in Cairns. This memorial honours only DH's brother, who at the time of his death, was the Mayor of Cairns...

A nice little band rotunda...

And plaque...

Surprisingly, visiting  all these memorials was not a sad experience...rather it was quite uplifting due to the beauty of this area of Queensland.