Several months ago as I was driving Sam home from her 21st present, she told me what I would need to do for her present to me. Which was basically just keep a night free, well with uni over for the year, I thought last night was a perfect night to take her up on the offer. I was then told that we had to be there are 6:30pm and it would take about 1hr to get there, so I sat and thought “I wonder what she has planned?”. On Monday when we were chatting Sam told me that I could wear whatever I wanted as there was no dress code. This got me thinking more and then the rest of the family popped in with suggestions as to what we could be doing. They ranged from going to the beach for Fish and Chips, actually only going 5mins down the road because Sam told me 1hr to confuse me, not actually going anywhere but just cruising the streets in Sam’s little Festiva or going to the Yatala Twin Drive-In.
My last guess was what we ended up doing. Many many months ago Sam and I were chatting and it came up that I have never gone to a Drive-In and she filed that little piece of information away for a later date :). Before we made the drive down we stocked up on a variety of different sugar sources to ensure that we would have a night of sugar induced hysterics, which we did of course end up having.
We were unsure of what the traffic would be like on the way down so we left a bit early and ended up having a long snack stop at Yatala Pies waiting for 6:30 to come around which is when the gates opened. We were both unsure how many people would be there since it was a Tuesday night and were quite surprised at how quickly the place filled up. The first movie we watched was Borat which was a total crack up and then A Good Year which was a decent yarn. Then it was home time and we cruised back up the M1 home with plans of future road trips we should do. Thanks Sam for a fantastic 21st present 
Well final marks came out the other day and all my fears of failing a subject in my last semester were quashed as I passed all my subjects remarkably well. This all means that my graduation status now says approved so in 2.5 weeks I will get a piece of paper that says I can now enter the real world
It also means that I need to get kicking on my graduation dress as otherwise I will have nothing to wear underneath my robes
In just nine days I will be hosting the biggest event of my life to date. Yep the 21st birthday party, much more classier than the 18th party because in those three years we have all matured a lot. In those nine days I have a lot left to do. Finalise the menu, start cooking, prepare the decorations and music and other little things. Though I don’t want to go into much detail before the event so those of you are coming are still suprised, it is shaping up to be a great night. Sunset 21 is the name I have given the party as we will be having dinner during sunset and it is for my 21st
In between all of this I have been applying for jobs all over the country, working on my graduation dress with Mum, picking up extra shifts at work, working on a quilt and bludging as needed.
Oh and of course watching/listening to the cricket. It is day 2 of the first Ashes test and it’s looking for Australia at the moment. I am not a big sports fan but as I wander past the living room I will sit down on the couch and watch a couple of balls. It is also great seeing what The Fanatics and the Barmy Army are getting up to in showing their support for Australia and England respectively.
Killarney Glen is part of the Kokoda Jungle Warfare Training ground which explains the sign and also the fact that the area is managed by the Defence department instead of National Parks. On certain areas of the track down to the creek we would see signs on the trees warning us not to move past the tree if we valued our life.
Unbeknownst to Mum a little over a year ago she had scheduled herself to lead a walk on what would turn out to be my graduation day. So when my graduation date was announced, Mum had a little bit of a scramble to do in finding someone else to lead the walk. Luckily a friend was free to lead the trip so this past Sunday, us three and another friend of Mum’s headed down to the Canungra area to do a pre-outing so the new leader would know where to take her merry band of walkers.
We had the most delightful day, a late start as the walk is only a 20 min stroll down the hill to the creek where you can explore up and down stream as well as having a relaxing paddle in water that was just the right temperature.
We then headed off to have a look at the old Lahey’s Timber Mill Tramway Tunnel which was so delightfully cool compared to the warm day out in the open.
Then it was down to the Canungra township for Weis Bars and to marvel at the amount of bikies who were out for a Sunday tour. Instead of coming home via the M1 we headed up the Beaudesert-Nerang Rd and Waterford-Tamborine Rd and joined the M1 again at Logan.
We had the most fantastic night last night! Eyes darting all over the scene in front of us, our ears enchanted by the music, laughing at the antics of the clowns, smiling as the artists performed in the aisle in front of us, whispering and pointing as we spot artists appearing in different locations, playing with the masks in the shop and just absorbing the Cirque atmosphere.
We went Cirque du Soleil last night to see our fourth tour - Varekai (well forth for Mum and Matthew, the third for me) and oh what a magical show it was. Mum had got us the best seats, we were twelve rows back and smack bang in the middle, everything was laid out in front of us! Those seats were fantastic! Apart from Mum, Matthew and I, Grandad and one of my best friends Sam also came along.
One of the great things about this show is that there is a local boy(man) in the show, Steven Bishop and his assistant had the us holding our sides as their clowning antics sent us into fits of laughter.
Once again we were mesmerised by the costumes and make-up and would love to be able to see all the costumes close up and feel the beauty in them.
Now I really want to find a way to go to Las Vegas for the night so I can see the LOVE show as how could you top the music of the Beatles with the artistry of Cirque du Soleil?
Well I did my last exam today Now I just have to wait to get all my results back and graduate
Mum and I are going away for the weekend with NPAQ, to spend some time sea-kayaking the Pumistone Passage from the Bongaree boat ramp at one end of Bribie Island up to Mission Point for lunch and setting up camp before further exploring the passage in the afternoon.
It is shaping up to be a fantastic weekend away, well apart from the 99.9% certainty of been eaten alive by sandflies and mozzies no matter how much DEET you have on.
This shows the general Bribie area.
Anyway time for bed as we have early start in the morning and I can’t wait
Tuesday night Andrea, her Matthew and I had a fantastic night at the U2 concert, watching them kick off the Asia-Pacific leg of the Vertigo tour at long last (they were meant to play in March but had to cancel due to illness). The concert was well worth the wait and the rains managed to stay away for the night which was nice. I was very close to selling my ticket because I had two exams the following day, one at 8:30am but about 5 seconds into the intro of City of Blinding Lights I was glad I had decided to go and proceeded to have a smile on my face for the rest of the night. Well apart from that part where there was a lady on the big screen who read the UDHR and I started weeping.
The concert itself was truly great, everything else though sort of sucked. The delays in the shuttle buses that were running to and from the venue, the lack of signage at the venue telling people where to go, the fact that security stopped checking bags pretty quickly as there was no way they could check everyone, the lack of enough food and merchandise stalls to process people quick enough. Lots of things really sucked and I am sure looking back on the concert the organisers are wishing they had been able to get the permits to hold it at Lang Park instead of at QE2, which has the logistics in place from all the Rugby games to deal with 45 000+ people.
We didn’t get to see Kanye West who was the support act but then I don’t think many people did and I am pretty certain most people didn’t really care about missing him because yeah enough said.
Set list
1) City of Blinding Lights
2) Vertigo
3) Elevation/The Go-Betweens - Streets of Your Town (a little tribute to Grant McLennan)
4) Until the End of the World
5) New Year’s Day
6) Beautiful Day
7) Yahweh
Walk On
9) Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own/The Black Hills of Dakota
10) Love and Peace or Else
11) Sunday Bloody Sunday
Father Abraham/Political Interlude
12) Bullet the Blue Sky/ When Johnny Comes Marching Home/Hands that Built America
13) Passengers – Miss Sarajevo
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
14) Pride (In the Name of Love)
15) Where the Streets have No Name
Political Interlude
16) One
Encore #1
Political Interlude
17) Zoo Station
18) The Fly
19) With or Without You/The Go-Betweens - Streets of Your Town (a little tribute to Grant McLennan)
Encore #2
20) The Saints are Coming (World Premiere of the song!)
21) Angel of Harlem/Young Americans (as Young Australians)
22) Kite
I said to Andrea and Matthew that this has to be the biggest concert Brisbane has had in a long time and it seems that I was correct, it was in fact the biggest since two concerts in 1998, one by Elton John & Billy Joel and of course the other by U2.
