Well we are back from the Noosa River and oh what a time we had! Mostly gorgeous weather, good times and no accidents. Everything is now unpacked and washed, photos are sorted, uploaded and tagged to Flickr (well I am missing a few botanical names yet). I will do a series of posts in the coming days providing a write up of our time on the river. However, I will share a photo or two now which sum up the trip.
The upper Noosa River and Teewah Creek both are excellent mirrors. Early in the morning when the water is still or in sheltered parts, it is hard to tell if you are looking at the reflection in the water or the real thing.
This photo is mainly for two girls in my life who would probably be horrified if they saw our sleeping arrangements for the trip 🙂
And to round it out, a photo of Mum and I on the last day at lunch before we battled the waves and made our way across the lake back to Elanda Point.
I am a little sore across my back but other than that I would jump back on the river in a heartbeat as it is the most beautiful place.
I have worked full-time this week as my boss has been on holidays so the 2iC and I each got to step up in our roles. I look forward to my paycheck as 36/37odd hours on a casual rate is very nice even after the tax is taken out. Working that much this week has sort of put my job hunt on hold but I sort of look forward to getting back into the job hunt because I really want to find a job soonish.
Mum, I and some friends are heading off for a 4-day canoe trip in the morning so that will put the hunt on hold for a couple of days. We are paddling down Teewah Ck and Upper Noosa River to Elanda Point on Lake Cootharaba. The last time we did this trip was the summer of 2001/02 so it will be nice to see how it has changed and of course to get out on the water for a paddle. (This map shows the general area we are paddling in. To give a sense of scale, Lake Cootharaba is a about 11km from tip to tip.)
I went out for Low Tea earlier today with Ms Andrea to Queenies Tea House at Ascot and had a delightful time, chatting and eating and chatting and eating. I had a Chocolate Low Tea which gave me a selection of little chocolate treats like little tartlets, mousse, fudge etc with quite a nice pot of Organic Ceylon Pekoe. Andrea was very dainty and had the Traditional Low Tea which gave her a trio of ribbon sandwiches, some sweets and a few cherries. Her tea selection was a Japanese Sencha Quince which to me tasted like marshmallows. I am serious! After a leisurely “lunch” we looked in the windows of the shops on Racecourse Rd as they are all shut on Sundays and saw quite a few pretty things 🙂
I should mention that a little over a week ago Mum and I went into the State Library to see the National Treasures exhibition before it closed and that was wonderful to see. Seeing Ned Kelly’s mask, Willis’s pistol, draft designs of the Sydney Opera House, Bradman’s Bat, design sheets of the classic EH Holden, Cpt Cook’s journal from the Endeavour, gorgeous artwork from the colonial era as well as some incredible botanical and zoological artwork and so much more. I urge you to explore the National Treasures webpage even if you aren’t Australian just to see some of the incredible things in the exhibition.
One of the first things you see in the exhibition is Jacob Cuyp’s painting of Abel Tasman with his wife and daughter. I dropped my jaw at the work of the restorers as this painting looked like it was painted yesterday not in 1637, the colours were so vivid and fresh.
When I wrote this earlier this arvo I didn’t think I would have a photo to share with this but whilst I was letting the post mature and thinking about a title (Untitled I?) I did a little chalk art out on the street much to my father’s disgust. The lady across the street and Mum appreciated my art though 🙂
I was going to do a 🙂 but my circle at the start went slightly pear shaped as you can see. Instead I ended up with just a face.
Mum and I also went to see The Queen last night and what a fantastic movie it was. I can definitely see it picking up a large swag of awards. Wow.
This is a photo of Clare and I at the Mountain Goats at The Zoo last night. Oh wait wrong caption but we could be called a pair of Galahs I guess. Though this pair of Galahs are a male and female, like bird seed and spending their days flying about the Glasshouse Mountains so I probably quit whilst I am ahead.
The above photo is from earlier in the day when we went up to visit Grandad at the farm. Had a pretty quiet day at the farm, washed the car (much easier to do at the farm where there are no water restrictions like in Brisbane), picked beans, had lunch and had fun with my camera taking photos of a small selection of the birds who visit Grandad for his good looks and charming conversation (ok they like the bird bath and seed he leaves out, a girl has to have an imagination).
Once we had returned from the farm and I had had a short power nap it was into the valley to meet Clare to go to The Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice (JV) show at The Zoo.
It was Clare’s first ‘Goats show so she didn’t really have anything to compare it to so I am pretty sure she had a good time. I on the other hand well there were parts of the show I enjoyed such as Peter Hughes passing a bottle of Jameson’s around the crowd or the encore of covers or JV joining the boys on stage after a couple of songs and staying there for the rest of the night and providing some cool harmonies. Overall though compared to the last two ‘Goats shows this seemed to missing the magic, the crowd was a lot more somber and there was a lot less singing along and dancing at this show.
The biggest bummer of the night though was that they had sold of shirts the night before in Sydney 🙁 🙁 🙁
Well we arrived back in reality yesterday and it is certainly a change from what life was like for the past week.
Woodford was everything I imagined it to be and a hundred times more. The music, the food, the people, the vibe. I had a blast and would happily go back tomorrow working 5hr shifts in the little grocery store, cruising round discovering new bands and kicking back to old ones, eating good food and finding all sorts of cool things in the shops the only problem might be that I would probably run out of money at one stage. mmmm Woodford Rocked!
Next year I want to camp in a better place with different people (read:not my brother and his friends) and change my mobile provider because my much loved Vodafone does not love Woodford much at all (why can’t the mobile providers be nice people and co-operate and share coverage). Though I did survive without a computer for the week, having a mobile with extremely patchy reception was not fun because it was chewing the batteries searching for reception all the time and I am still yet to receive a message from Clare that she sent on the 30th. mmmm.
Music wise I had a blast, I only missed two or three bands that I really wanted to see but I can go see them round here anyway and if not I will see them at Blues and Roots in April
I will quite happily admit that the one of the major drawcards (actually probably the drawcard, the tipping stone) in making me go to Woodford this year was the fact that Women in Docs(WiD) were playing a couple of gigs and oh what a delight that was.
It was great seeing them play and it is hard to believe that it took me what seven years? to see them play and get a couple of CD’s. I missed one of the shows as I was working but the other two I caught and they finished their set with the most delightful cover that I have not been able to get out of my head – Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show. They have two gigs in Brissie in a bit less than a month’s time so we will of course go and check them out. Hopefully there will be some Tin Roof action at one of those because there wasn’t at Woodford 🙁
Over the years I have seen Tim and the Whitlams numerous times, but this relatively smallish gig at the Grande tent topped the list. It was Tim, a keyboard and a mike doing what he does best singing those songs. He made small talk with the crowd at the front and played requests as people yelled them out to him. Though he didn’t get round to doing Kate Kelly.
For me the music I saw pretty much divided into two broad categories of folky/rocky/vocal centered and then the funky/roots/fusion jazz/designed to get you shaking that tail feather. Pablo Discobar and De Jah Groove, Blue King Brown and Troy ‘n’ Trevelyn (now known as Banawurn) in the funk pile along with some others. Very much prefect music for some late night hip shaking.
One of the highlights had to be the 80’s Singalong, the Concert tent was filled with people singing, dancing and laughing as we were lead by a merry group of singers on the stage.
Whilst most of the songs were on the poppier side of the 80’s, the closing song Livin’ on a Prayer went off and I think the whole tent started laughing when Roz decided rock out and go for the stage dive. This photo actually for some reason reminds me of Joan Jett, can’t quite place why but it does.
Ms Clare came up to Woodford with her friend Katie for the couple of days that Katie’s band was playing and then departed. It was great fun to meet Katie though and to cruise the streets of Woodford with the both of them plus the various people Katie collected along the way.
Sporting their hippie head bands
Ms Clare trying to tempt me with a piece of Sushi (it didn’t work).
The two food highlights for me at Woodford would have to have been the Byron Bay Organic Doughnuts and the Hungarian Langos place. The doughnuts were so so good and pretty darn cheap. The cinnamon one was classic and a good snack but the chocolate filled ones were just like heaven in a little hunk of dough. mmmm but messy, I had melted dark chocolate all over me. The Langos were also so good and I am going to try my hand at making them at home. mmm tasty!
I also picked up a skirt, a dress, a couple of scarves, a couple of bangles and some other assorted trinkets. Plus a whole stack of CDs and quite a few gigs to go to in the coming weeks and more CDs to buy from the stores here.
Matthew and I are still wearing our wristbands and are having a mini competition to see who can leave it on the longest :). Oh and a gumboot report is coming, so watch out!
