ange2ange: On concerts, fireworks and reptilian endeavours

This is the last week of school for us in the Sunny Southern Isles! Well, the last week for Term 3 anyway. After this, it’s a fast trot through Term 4 to the end of the year, and all the madness THAT brings. And summer. The boys have forgotten what summer is like here…I’m trying to find a legitimate excuse to disappear to cooler climes! Too long outside in the sun, with or without sunblock, and this is what one could look like!

We are halfway through our week already, and the weekend is a distinct blur. It was a good one though as far as I can remember.

The boys both did very well at their piano concert, and stole the show. As usual, we were very proud of them. K has made 2 video clips as small as poss so that you can hopefully view the clips without a huge download. We hope you can access the clips OK.

E is 1st. We have only included part of his first piece. L is 2nd with snippets of his 2 pieces.

Enjoy!

[Click on the arrow to load & play.

For those with slower internet speed, you may need to load the videoclip once right through to the end, before clicking the 'play' button again.

It should run a little smoother the 2nd time around!]

This weekend was the weekend of the annual Brisbane Riverfire – a fireworks extravaganza that is quite simply one of the very best fireworks displays we have ever seen anywhere on our travels. Well over 600,000 Brisbanites descend upon the banks of the river around the central city environs. By early afternoon, carparking is virtually nil for several kilometres around the city. Public transport is full, and people have staked their spot from which to enjoy the evening’s entertainment. There is a real party atmosphere with many people making a day of it. BBQ’s, eskies, and picnic rugs. Although there is entertainment happening right throughout the day, the highlight of the Riverfest is the fireworks display. Barges in the river, bridges spanning the river, and tall buildings around the river are all used as fireworks dispensers! In fact this year, some of the bridges had firework-waterfalls cascading off them into the river. Truly amazing! The fireworks are synchronised to music which is broadcast through loudspeakers everywhere. This year, was particularly poignant, because it is the last year that the F1-11 jet fighterplanes would be making an appearance. The F1-11 is interesting because of the ‘dump ‘n burn’ manoeuvre it can do – the jets can dump a load of fuel which then can be ignited by the afterburners on the jet. Naturally, at 600kmph, you can imagine the incredible sound and spectacle of this happening in the night sky as the finale to an amazing 30-minute solid round of light, sound, and colour. It is such a superb occasion – one of the few where it is worth joining the crowds just to ‘be there’!

I did wonder though, with the vibrations caused by millions of dollars worth of fireworks and jet fuel, and the hundreds of thousands of people everywhere, just where do the animals (like snakes which feel vibrations acutely) hide on such a night as this? It was just a thought….

Speaking of snakes, I heard the other day, that the warm winter has activated the reptile population a little earlier into preparing for Spring Things. Our neighbour heard a hullabaloo on her doorstep the other morning. A guest of hers had arrived, and was hammering at her door to be let in. Unfortunately, our neighbour happened to be ‘indisposed’ at the time and couldn’t rush to open the door….when she did however, she discovered that a yellowbellied black (snake) had holed her friend up on the front porch! Like, this is only NEXT DOOR! Anyway I am working VERY hard at not being a hysterical mom, when my son goes off mountainbiking into the bush, and my husband disappears offtrack to explore another path into the scrub! And I have to work even harder to quell my misgivings, when they drag me on my bike into the bush too…..!!!