Tag Archives: Brisbane

Another week in Instagram and schoolies week

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I’m quite enjoying featuring my Instagram images in my blog. It’s such a versatile way of sharing images. If you have an iPhone or Android device I highly recommend it. Coupled with the Evernote Food it’s a great way of keeping track of my food likes and dislikes.

Before we get to the food images I just wanted to write about Schoolies week. Schoolies began when I was at high school. I attended Brisbane Grammar School between 1978 and 1982. I remember as a junior, the senior boys in fifth and sixth form talking about spending a week down the Gold Coast (Wikipedia article) for a long “never ending” drinking and sex session. I remember when it first started it was basically for the GPS group of schools, i.e., the Great Public Schools in Brisbane. It also included the corresponding girls schools like Brisbane Girls Grammar School.

So yes I was one of “those” private school boys. That said, I wasn’t a drinker and didn’t really mix with others except for sport. I represented the school in swimming and still water life saving. Academically I won the Biology prize in fifth and sixth form. Hence my desire that if I couldn’t study medicine I would have studied zöology (although I knew I’d never be any good because I couldn’t grow a bushy beard. You see at the time all the famous zöologists were bearded men of great stature.) Somehow I managed to be popular enough amongst my peers and teachers to be elected a school prefect. Okay enough showing off. When I was in sixth form my friends were all talking about going to schoolies week, getting drunk, having lots of sex and just carousing. I had other plans. I finished school on the Friday, attended the valedictory dinner and then the following Monday started work at Queensland Medical Laboratory as a technical aid. I cleaned benches, faeces sieves and kept stocks of stuff up for the technicians and scientists. I also worked in the media kitchen making media for bacteriology. I heard about the “good time” my mates were having but I was having a better time making money and learning the skills needed to become a pathologist.

Now in 2012 my eldest daughter, viz., Miss17 has attended schoolies week. I woke up yesterday morning to the news that tragically a 17 year old girl from Brisbane had fallen to her death from a high rise balcony. My heart sank. I checked my telephones for missed calls and messages. Blank. Phew. Relief. Then a feeling of overwhelming despair for the parents of the girl who died.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-23/support-for-schoolies-after-balcony-death/4389854?section=qld
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-23/school-in-shock-after-high-rise-tragedy/4389296

I’ve been conscious of not being an annoying father, so I waited until Tuesday morning to send my first text message just to see that Miss17 was okay. After that we had a short Kik chat each morning. It’s certainly reassured me to maintain just some contact without imposing myself on Miss17.

Some friends have asked why I would be supportive of my daughter attending schoolies. I know Miss17. She’s a mature young woman. I know she’ll look after herself and she’ll look after her friends. I have faith in Miss17′s ability to do the best thing in any situation. Schoolies has now become a huge event as a rite of passage with school leavers spending a week in major tourist spots like the Gold Coast, Bali, Byron Bay and Airlie Beach. It’s also created a by-product, viz., toolies. Toolies are older men who prey on vulnerable girls for sex.

As for Miss11 and Miss15 they’ve been in Geelong this week for the National Club Championships. Their team, Delta Brisbane was again named best club and Miss11′s WAGL5 came first while Miss15′s WAGL10 came second. Miss15 didn’t compete with the team because of an ankle injury so she competed as an individual on the uneven bars and beam. She seems pretty happy. She’ll be back to school on Monday and completing examinations.

Before we get to the food images, I wanted to share a YouTube clip that has taken off here in Australia as a safety message.
Dumb ways to die

To see the images more clearly and to read the comments from Instagram users please click on the image.

Instagram

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On Monday I had a nice quiche from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar. This is a Camembert, onion and sun dried tomato quiche. I had it with a mug of Earl Grey tea.

Lunch. Camembert onion and tomato quiche with Earl Grey tea. It's suddenly cold in Canberra.

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That evening I roasted a chicken thigh on top of a piece of Multigrain Vienna loaf and served it on top of some freshly made coleslaw. I also added a dollop of Buderim ginger lemon and lime marmalade.

Dinner. Chicken thigh on a bed of coleslaw with mango. Served with a little ginger lemon lime marmalade.

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For breakfasts I’ve gone back to a smoothie for ease, convenience and as an attempt to control my weight.
Iced coffee banana smoothie with an egg white.

Iced coffee banana smoothie with an egg white. It's time to lose weight for Summer.

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That piece of public art near my office that I wrote about last week is taking shape.

New public art installation taking place. #publicart #igerscanberra

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On Tuesday one of our work mates had her last day before her wedding this weekend. The relevant section put on a curry lunch. Here are the slow cookers doing their thing.

Something is cooking at work!

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The curry was really good. On my plate are three types, lamb, beef and chicken. There is also some yoghurt, bread and rice.

Lunch dedicated to work mate who is getting married. Curry lunch yumminess.

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That evening I only needed a small dinner. I “poached” some salmon by placing it skin side down in a hot fry pan and adding a lid. I turned the heat down and then waited five minutes to turn the heat off. In the pan I also had a piece of sourdough bread that had some blue cheese on it. I grew a little addicted to the cheese and bread this week. I need to stop this now. :-)

Dinner. I had a big lunch so now having a small dinner. "Poached" salmon and blue cheese.

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The piece of public art had more work done on it Wednesday morning.

New #publicart taking shape. At first I thought it might be a Flying Spaghetti Monster. #igerscanberra

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When I got to the post office there was a parcel waiting for me.

Parcel from post office. A gift to myself.

It’s nice they had Christmas wrapping on the parcel.
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After last week’s Friday Fries (that actually sounds better than Friday Chips) with the Cascade Lime Quench, I wanted another Lime Quench. This time with a house made sausage roll from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar.

Mmm...lime 😃

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When I got home I unpacked my parcel. It is a Magic Bullet®. I had one of these when I lived in Darwin. I’ve been feeling a little down lately so I thought I’d buy a kitchen appliance to make me feel happier, especially with Summer coming. The Magic Bullet® is great for crushed ice drinks and for smoothies. While I’ve been making by breakfast banana smoothies with my trusty Bamix® wand and a jug, the Magic Bullet® is quicker and easier. It is also fantastic for making small quantities of things like whipped cream.

Gift to myself. Mini blender.

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Dinner Wednesday night. Roast chicken thighs on sourdough with blue cheese served with asparagus and broccolini.

Roast chicken thighs on sourdough with blue cheese served with asparagus and broccolini.

This tasted really good. I roasted at a low heat for an hour. The bread became really crispy and cheesy. It was delicious with the chicken skin and the tender moist thigh meat. I prepared the chicken with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and Tabasco sauce.

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On Thursday morning I pulled all the bits and pieces out of the dishwater and tried my new Magic Bullet®. Breakfast caramel coffee banana smoothie made with my new Magic Bullet®

Breakfast caramel coffee banana smoothie made with my new Magic Bullet® 😃

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When I got to work and went to get my mail, I saw men on the piece of public art. I still don’t know what it is. There’s lots of speculation in the office.

Lots of activity on the new #publicart in Woden #igerscanberra

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This is what I tweeted through Instagram for lunch. “Cheesy bacon pie. For store bought this was a really good pie. Chunky tender beef and visible bacon. #winner”

Lunch. Cheesy bacon pie. For store bought this was a really good pie. Chunky tender beef and visible bacon. #winner

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Extreme naughtiness. Chicken thighs roasted on blue cheesy sourdough with potato gems and washed down with Agrum and minted ice #MagicBullet

Extreme naughtiness. Chicken thighs roasted on blue cheesy sourdough with potato gems and washed down with Agrum and minted ice #MagicBullet

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On Friday morning I tweeted No work on new #publicart today. #igerscanberra
I did see men the afternoon before pouring a lot of concrete into the tubing.

No work on new #publicart today. #igerscanberra

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You may be aware the Tasmanian devil is currently endangered because of the Devil facial tumour disease. This is a pretty sad image of a poor little devil who is suffering from the disease

If you’re not familiar with the Tasmanian devil you may know it better from the Looney Tunes cartoons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_Devil_%28Looney_Tunes%29

Anyway, the connection with me is my love of Ginger beer, especially Bundaberg Ginger beer.
For lunch, the Urban Bean Espresso Bar does not stock Bundaberg brewed drinks but it does stock Cascade beverages.
So I had a Cascade Ginger beer and a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich.

Lunch toastie Cheese and tomato with ginger beer

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A tray of vanilla slices for a big boss briefing this afternoon. We called it “Operation Vanilla Slice”. One of my work mates used the recipe I posted previously at http://garydavidlum.com/2012/10/21/vanilla-slice-from-work/

A tray of vanilla slices for a big boss briefing this afternoon. We called it "Operation Vanilla Slice".

These were pretty good and it really helped the briefing.

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Last night I cooked a pork cutlet. I put a piece of sourdough in a square pyrex container and soaked it in XXXX Gold beer. I laid the cutlet over the top and cooked in a slow oven for an hour. I served it with potato gems. The pork was surprisingly tender and not dry.

Pork cutlet and potato gems

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So today I had my plans disrupted because of the loss of my landline on Thursday. I’ve blogged about that here. The technician (Grant Munro) was very helpful and found a loose wire at the exchange. Once fixed I was back on-line but it was still too late to do the things I wanted to do this morning.

This afternoon I went to a wedding of a work mate. She’s the one who we had lunch for on Tuesday. She looked great and it was a beautiful ceremony at Lanyon Homestead. I got lost because that’s how I roll. I am really very poor with directions and I should have spent much more time looking at a map. What I didn’t realise was that Tharwa Drive forks and remains Tharwa Drive. Friends at work joke that the North side is Mordor yet all I could mumble as I was driving lost was “this must be Mordor”. When I arrived my friends laughed.


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I know I could have captured images of the bride and the wedding party but my friend Nat was there with her camera and I figured I could get a nice photograph from her later. Nat is also a photographer. Check out her site at http://www.kecozaphotography.com.au/

I was more interested in the car Nat and Ursula arrived in. It’s a Corvette which Ursula’s husband recently imported from the US.

Here for a wedding but the car is more interesting. Hi @kecozanat

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When I got home this afternoon I had to complete a Twitter challenge from Thursday. In March this year I posted an image to satisfy the same challenge from TheBernieBrand and PeskyPippi

You can see the link here http://garydavidlum.com/2012/03/04/yep-peskypippi-and-theberniebrand-i-got-whipped-cream/
This is a result of Pip’s page of the Whipped Cream Club http://peskypippi.com/2012/02/11/got-whipped-cream-i-dare-ya/

The details of the twitter thread from Thursday is here https://twitter.com/garydlum/status/272220390628143104
So here is me sucking on a can of whipped cream

Did this for twitter friends @theberniebrand @donovanshaw @fairyofsarcasm and others

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Tonight I had a pork cutlet. I served it with coleslaw that I made this afternoon. It tasted pretty good.

Dinner. Pork cutlet and fresh coleslaw.

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So that’s it for another week. A long post I know. I could have split it up and next week I might do that.

Mentioned places and products
Bundaberg is where my mother and her parents spent many years owning and working on sugar cane farms. There’s even a street named after them, viz., Que Hee Street. Google map http://goo.gl/maps/32wOb


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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundaberg

Buderim Ginger
I love ginger. Even if I wasn’t Chinese I think I’d love ginger. I also love ginger beer. I remember as a kid Mum taught me how to make our own ginger beer. I remember bottles exploding and making an alcoholic batch or two. They were good times.
http://www.buderimginger.com/home/
http://www.buderimginger.com/home/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_60&product_id=16

Bundaberg ginger beer is my favourite. It uses sugar from cane farms in Bundaberg.
http://www.bundaberg.com/info/product_range/ginger_beer/

XXXX Gold is the beer my grand parents drank and it’s the only beer I’ve ever tried. It is also a sponsor of the greatest rugby league (representative) team in the universe.
http://www.xxxx.com.au/

Magic Bullet®
http://www.buythebullet.com/
I bought my Magic Bullet® from Deals direct
http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/original-magic-bullet/

Bamix
Of all the kitchen wands, I like the Bamix the best.
http://www.bamix.com.au/

Agrum
This is a drink produced by Schweppes.
http://www.schweppesaustralia.com.au/Our-Brands/Schweppes/Agrum-Collection.aspx

Tasmanian devil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_devil

Devil facial tumour disease
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease

Lanyon Homestead
Google map http://goo.gl/maps/YVpNA


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We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia but I did learn how to carve a turkey from a Thanksgiving site.
5 Turkey Carving Tips – From Armand, The Butcher

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CPAP update and my week in Instagram

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Thanks to everyone who made contact about last week’s CPAP post asking for updates as I go. Well this week was much the same as the first week. Interrupted nights and a feeling of being more tired than normal. It made the days at work long and tedious. The abrasion lesion on my occiput is healing in that I think a callous is forming.

On Tuesday night I flew to Brisbane for a Wednesday meeting. I thought about taking the machine but in the end didn’t. I was just too busy and the extra weight in a bag wasn’t something I needed to focus on with so much on my mind.

I thought for this post I’d tell a story by Instagram (Check out my profile at http://instagram.com/garydlum). I know they’re mostly food images but then what else would you expect.

If you click on the images you’ll also be able to see the Instagram comments.

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On Monday at lunch I had a quiche. It was a ham, cheese and shallot quiche. I like quiche and no matter what anyone says, men do eat quiche. The quiches I buy for lunch come from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar in Scarborough House and the cost $4.90 each. I enjoyed my quiche with a mug of Canadian ice wine tea.

Ham, cheese and shallot quiche

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On Monday evening I had some left over beef mince with the seed mustard and XXXX Gold beer. I wrote about this last week at http://garydavidlum.com/2012/11/11/cpap-shogun-japanese-restaurant-a-burger-with-a-difference/
I was feeling pretty tired and lazy. I just made an open sandwich and used the yoghurt and Worcestershire sauce to add a little flavour to the gravy.

Open sandwich. Burger made with seed mustard and beer. Multigrain Vienna bread. Yoghurt and Worcestershire sauce.

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On Tuesday I was packed for a night away and wanted something light. I chose a sausage roll and a Cascade Lemon, lime and bitters. The sausage roll costs $4.50 from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar.

Lunch

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On Tuesday evening after a full on day at work I drove to the Canberra Airport and relaxed a little in the Qantas Business Lounge.

Preflight snack

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On the flight I enjoyed a salad of ocean trout on an Asian coleslaw.

Ocean trout and Asian coleslaw.

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The meal also came with a chocolate and caramel brownie. Some Instagram friends unkindly likened it to a log of faeces.

Chocolate caramel brownie

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On Tuesday evening I checked into the Oaks Aurora Tower. It’s a residential apartment block which also has some hotel style apartment rooms that the Oaks group uses. This was my second stay. My first stay was earlier in the year for a work meeting. I found the room then a little grimy and things like the remote controls were sticky. It was cheap for the taxpayer so I thought I’d try again. This time I had a different room. The carpet felt dirty and the kitchen area was a little grimy. The remote controls were also sticky. I don’t think I’ll stay there again. At $130 a night it is a cheap hotel when compared to other places in the city, especially for an apartment style room with a kitchen. On Wednesday morning I woke up to this view of Brisbane.

Hello Brisbane.

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The meeting went well. It was a full day and I spoke for a good part of the meeting. My flight back to Canberra departed at about 1900 AEST and wouldn’t land until 2200 AEDT. For dinner on the flight I had a pork chop and vegetables.

Pork chop and mash

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The Wednesday marked the 40th birthday for a work mate. We have a great culture in the branch with many of my work mates being terrific cooks. They often bring in cakes, macarons, biscuits and other sweet treats. To celebrate another work mate made a baked raspberry cheesecake. The best thing about my work mates is they remember me and kept me a slice. Of course they also had cream :-)

A work mate turns 40 and another work mate makes a baked cheese cake. We have a terrific work place.

There were some comments from Instagram followers asking how I’m not huge. Truth is I try not to eat too much. I try to exercise every day and when I feel myself thickening, I pull back on the intake. Over the last week or so I’ve dropped a couple of kilograms through reduced intake, stress and poor sleep.

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On Thursday evening I was exhausted. I wanted something simple and tasty to eat. I was craving something salty. I had some chicken thighs with skin on them and needed to cook them over a few nights. I floured the thigh with plain flour, mustard, spike and curry powder. I served them with potato gems (I think in the US you call them Tater Tots.
The chicken looked like it was fried, it was oven cooked.

The chicken looks fried but it's oven done with a little flour.

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For some years Canberra taxpayers have been investing in public art. I like public art and I reckon every city should have some nice art works for everyone to enjoy. Every morning at 0730 I take a walk from my office to get my personal mail from the post office. It looks like there will be a new installation soon. It’s a pity the surrounding buildings aren’t looking too flash at the moment.

I wonder what new piece of #publicart is being erected #igerscanberra

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On Fridays some work mates in the branch enjoy chips from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar. A small container costs $4.00. They are pretty good chips (or for my north American friends, fries). I ate Friday lunch with a friend who is about to get married. She’s been watching her diet to ensure she can fit into her dress. This week however, she decided to get in her words “sucky in” pants which sound like elasticised support underwear. She felt at liberty to eat chips which I thought was cool.

Chips with work mates. One is getting married soon. She's given up on the diet and bought a girdle thing.

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Friday night came and I wasn’t hungry. I just had no appetite. It wasn’t really the chips, I was just exhausted and mentally wasted. I cooked a chicken thigh alone and ate that.

I've lost my appetite. Just a piece if chicken tonight.

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I decided yesterday I would clean out my home office of two year’s worth of papers that I’d been meaning to get to and file. It took a good part of the whole day to go through it all.
My lunch was a nice piece of multigrain Vienna loaf that I toasted and topped with tinned red salmon and a vine tomato.

Lunch. Multigrain Vienna bread with red salmon and tomato.

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Last night I made some coleslaw and had a chicken thigh.

Dinner. Chicken thigh and coleslaw with some bread.

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On the subject of Canberra public art, this morning on my work I captured the image of my favourite piece, viz., the Owl Statue. From the front it’s clearly an owl, from behind however, many Canberra residents have likened the phallic shape as a piece of Canberra’s pubic art.

Good morning Mr Owl. Please share your wisdom.

Goodbye Mr Owl.

On my walk this morning I also came across this piece of graffiti which I can relate to.

I can relate to this

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After my walk I felt like eating some eggs and drinking a strong cup of coffee.

Breakfast. Eggs on toast.

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I spent a few hours at work this morning and again didn’t feel that hungry. Lunch was pretty boring. The rest of the tinned red salmon on toast.

Lunch. Red salmon from Aldi on toast

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This evening I had a piece of Atlantic salmon (from Tasmania) along with some more fresh coleslaw. I cooked the salmon by placing in a fry pan and adding a lid. I cooked it on a moderately high heat for five minutes. The skin was crisp and the flesh was perfectly cooked. The coleslaw was fresh and tangy and nothing beats adding a bit of Kensington Pride mango. This was a nice cooked dinner with a tropical touch. I also added chilli flakes and a little Tabasco Sauce to the salmon to add some bite.

Atlantic salmon with freshly made coleslaw plus Kensington Pride mango #salmon #mango #coleslaw #igersfood

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This week Miss11 and Miss15 are in Geelong for the National Club Championships. Miss15 has a bad ankle and will only be doing uneven bars and beam.

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Urban Bean Espresso Bar http://www.beanhunter.com/cafes/review/Urban-Bean-Espresso-Bar
Foursquare https://foursquare.com/v/urban-bean-espresso-bar/4da224be7aee5481e133d0fe

Scarborough House https://foursquare.com/v/scarborough-house/4bbea14182a2ef3b45c12bd2
Google Map http://goo.gl/maps/qGN6Q


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Canberra Airport https://foursquare.com/v/canberra-airport-cbr/4b1896c3f964a52068d423e3
Google Map http://goo.gl/maps/MqQ4t


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Qantas Business Lounge https://foursquare.com/v/qantas-business-lounge/4b889f09f964a520fd0432e3

Aurora Tower https://foursquare.com/v/aurora-tower/4b1ba1fdf964a52054fc23e3
Google Map http://goo.gl/maps/9ydtD


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Oaks Hotels and Resorts http://www.oakshotelsresorts.com/

Tater Tots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tater_Tots

Woden Wind Tunnel https://foursquare.com/v/woden-wind-tunnel/4de2bb3ac65b7a3e21223baa

Owl Statue https://foursquare.com/v/owl-statue/4dd44c5352b18e28aa120356

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Wanton Wonton Wonderfulness

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The last week and a bit has been huge. On Thursday and Friday 25 and 26 October I was at Mt Macedon at a Disaster Intelligence Master Class run by the Australian Emergency Management Institute (AEMI). This was an excellent two days meeting new colleagues and networking.

On Sunday 28 October I flew back to Melbourne for another three nights stay. For the last few months I’ve been involved in the preparation for a week of meetings with international colleagues covering a week of meetings in Melbourne and Canberra. On Thursday I hosted a full day meeting with international visitors. I am so grateful to a small cadre of work mates who behind the scenes got all the logistics sorted out in quick time.

So my week has been full on and my eating has been atrocious. The only day when it approached okay was Thursday when I had some control over the food at the breaks and lunch. We served fruit platters and sandwiches with “healthful” fillings. On the other days when other agencies were in charge we enjoyed cream filled biscuits, cream filled pastries, doughnuts, cakes and slices. The lunches were also very filling.

To top off a very full and mentally stressful week I had arranged to visit my kids in Brisbane this weekend. That has meant a lot of fun and really very little time for rest and sleep. The other benefit has been a rebalance of my twitter statistics. Last week saw very little social media activity so I’ve made up for it over the weekend, especially on Twitter and Instagram.

Anyway, so here I am in Brisbane this weekend. What I had not realised was that my two younger brothers would also be in town. They were sorting some things out for my parents. To give you some context. I’m the eldest of three sons. Brother 2 is two years younger than me and Brother 3 is six years younger than me. Brother 2 is a medical practitioner based in Cairns and Brother 3 is in Brisbane’s building and construction industry.

At lunch Brother 2 sent me an iMessage asking if I wanted wonton for dinner. Earlier in the day we had discussed having dinner at Eatons Hill Hotel where Miss17 was doing work experience. They didn’t have a table so we elected to go to our tried and true Kedron-Wavell RSL. My guess is that Brother 2 and Brother 3 had a chat between themselves and cooked up a scheme, a scheme that would suit me just fine.

Brother 3 has become a master of wonton making. He has friends who ask him to make wonton for them. Brother 3 essentially follows Mum’s recipe. Brother 2 however, prefers a variation on Mum’s recipe. Brother 2 like me enjoys adding texture to our food. We’re also fans of coriander (cilantro) while Mum isn’t. Brother 2 tends to add raw finely sliced ginger and bamboo shoots to augment the crunch of the water chestnuts.

In the end we stayed with Mum’s recipe given we were eating with Mum and Dad.

While we were out Miss 17 needed to my a birthday card. I saw one that caught my eye.

Card shopping with Miss17

(Instagram)

We also enjoyed a high carbohydrate lunch from a local Japanese Bakery.

Japanese bacon wrap

Lunch. Japanese bacon wrap.

(Instagram)

Custard platypus

Custard platypus

(Instagram)

After lunch we were in need of Ice Cream so we went to Cold Rock Ice Creamery at Chermside.

Queensland nut (macadamia) and mint Freddo frog

(Instagram)

I asked Miss15 to capture an image of me buying ice cream.

Buying ice cream with the kids

When we arrived back at my parent’s place you could smell the food preparation from the corridor.

As we entered we were confronted with a tower of wonton wrapper.

I wondered if they had bought enough. Eight packets of fifty wrappers.

I wonder if my brothers bought enough wonton wrappers? Eight packets of fifty.

(Instagram)

Brother 2 had bought some pork mince but it was too lean so he got some pork belly and hand minced it in the traditional family way. With two meat cleavers. This is the BEST way to mince meat. It also builds muscles and annoys neighbours and tests the sturdiness of kitchen tables.

Meat cleavers used to mince the pork belly.

The final filling. Go to my Mum’s recipe for the details.

As the team were getting into making the wonton Miss11 and Miss15 wanted to have a go.

Then the experts showed them how.

We had tray upon tray and made about 400 wonton

We have tray upon tray upon tray of wonton

(Instagram)

The masters at work

The masters at work. #wonton

(Instagram)

Before I drove Miss17 to work experienced she and I were given a tasting bowl at about 1500 AEST.

Miss17 is having another lunch before work experience.

(Instagram)

When I got back dinner was ready and this is my first serving. So much better than restaurant portions.

Amazing wonton soup.

(Instagram)

I also needed a second serve at about 1900 AEST.

Seconds. Yes please.

(Instagram)

Did I mention the pork bones? They were fall off the bone tasty.

There were some wonton left over and my brothers and daughters have a liking for cold freshly made and cooked wonton from the refrigerator. Whenever I do it I get visions of Nigella Lawson going back to her refrigerator late at night.

Needless to say we slept well and still feel full. Mum and Dad though thought I needed a big breakfast.

Mum had been planning this for a little while. She grinned as she brought food from the refrigerator and was pretty happy when she saw my smile. She’d been to the butcher and got some lamb’s fry. As many readers know I like my offal and nice lamb’s fry is hard to come by. Mum has seasoned some flour with salt and pepper and coated the liver and then kept it in the refrigerator overnight. This morning she gently pan fried it and served it with bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs and a grilled tomato. It was delicious.

Awesome lambs fry breakfast. @DrOffal was in his element. 😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃

(Instagram)

Needless to say my daughters are not great fans of offal. I pondered whether Dr Offal should post this on his blog, but figured it was better suited to this post.

A note about this post. I’ve used a new WordPress.com feature. WordPress.com users can now embed Instagram images into their blog posts. This seems to work well. If you want to comment on an image in Instagram click on the image and if it’s been inserted through instagram you’ll soon see :-)

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Back in Canberra

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I got back to Canberra last night after a weekend in Darwin. After a sleep in I went for a walk and then to lunch with Bron.

Click on the images for high resolution versions.

On my walk I said hello to Mr Owl

On my walk I went past Weber’s circus

For lunch Bron and I went to Ricardo’s Cafe.

I had a really nice caramel thick shake. Sadly it didn’t agree with my IBS.

I had a Wagyu cheese burger. Sadly a part of an upper left molar broke off while eating it. The burger was delicious.

After the burger I had a pineapple. This was made with meringue and pineapple marshmallow.

This is the inside of the pineapple.

For dinner I had a light meal of salmon.

Salmon with mashed potato made with blue cheese plus asparagus and broccolini.

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My new food tube

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Miss15 bought me a couple of food tubes this weekend. I was up in Brisbane visiting my daughters and we went shopping and Miss15 asked if I wanted anything for the fathers day just past a few weeks ago. We were in kitchenware shop looking at cake decorating stuff and I saw a couple of food tubes.

Click on the images to reveal higher resolution views

I seared some Atlantic salmon and mashed some potato and sweet potato in my ricer. I put it into the food tube and created a mash tower in the centre of the plate. I topped this with spring onions. I made a thickish honey soy sauce (it had caramelised and become sticky) to drizzle on the mash stack and vegetables.

And to prove I could do it again, this is from Monday night.

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Brisbane high rise and food glorious food

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The last few days have been fairly busy and on Thursday and Friday I had to be in Brisbane for an important meeting.

On Wednesday I forgot my lunch and after a frantic morning I was in a café and spied a Chiko roll. I haven’t had one in years. My maternal grandfather‘s brother told me many times when I was young that our family had somehow been involved in the invention of the Chiko roll. At the time they owned a Chinese café at a truck stop in Rocklea in Brisbane. They used to sell these super large spring rolls mostly composed of cabbage and chicken. They sold them as chicken rolls. Mum and her brother have confirmed this story for me. They claim someone got the idea for the Chiko roll from my grandparents chiekn rolls at the Golden Pagoda in Rocklea. The Golden Pagoda was destroyed in the great flood of 1974 and the loss destroyed my grandparents and immediate family. They never really recovered.

Later that afternoon a work mate said she was going out to get some chocolate and I asked her get me some. I love my work mates. They know me. Look at what came back :-)

Check out the size of the block.

That night I didn’t feel that hungry but had some chicken thigh meat thawing (and no I didn’t eat all that chocolate in one sitting).

The chicken burgers were tasty, you can see I used an English muffin for one and a hamburger roll for the other.

The next morning I woke up early for a 0620 AEST flight from Canberra to Brisbane. I like that the Qantas Club has breakfast.

On board the flight I had another breakfast.

I spent Thursday night in my hotel room working. The view of the Brisbane River from the twenty-fifth floor was pretty good.

I went and bought a couple of hot pies and an apple crumble to get me through the night.

In the morning the view was better. I left Brisbane in 1995 to live in Darwin until coming to Canberra in 2007. Brisbane city has certainly grown.

Look at the huge tree. they are amazing. I love them.

I indulged in a Starbucks breakfast of toast and a caramel mocha with cream.

So on the way back to Canberra I spent time chatting with a work mate and eating.

The pork buns here were crap. They are from the Sydney Qantas club and rubbish. You want to see a nice barbecue pork bun go to the Dumpling Inn. Check out the image here.

The soup was a spicy Mexican lentil dish.

On Saturday we went to Costco to buy some food. I hadn’t had lunch. I tried a Costco hot dog. It wasn’t that good.

For afternoon tea we went to Ricardo’s Cafe at Jamison and had a caramel praline mousse.

Last night Bron and I cooked dinner together. I cooked a steak with an onion dijon sauce and Bron cooked the cauliflower blue cheese gratin. The gratin was amazing. I ate two. I wanted more.

Bron cooked a caramel chocolate tart and a lemon tart for dessert. They were out of this world. Bron is amazing.

Caramel chocolate tart

Lemon tart

This morning we went light and had a poached egg before our big lunch.

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Five years living in Canberra

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Today marks five years I’ve been living in Canberra. In 2007 I moved here from Darwin after living there since February 1996.

If you follow me on Twitter or you’re a Facebook friend you’ll know my natural habitat is any place that is warm and moist. I like living in warm humid small friendly cities. Having grown up in Brisbane (not that Brisbane is small, it’s larger than all the capitals in Australia in terms of geography), I reckon if you can survive a February and March you can live in any humid city.

Canberra is not warm and moist. Canberra is friendly but it is mostly cold and dry. I’ve lived with very dry skin all my life as well as allergic rhinitis. A dry climate is not a natural habitat for me without pain and discomfort, and medication and bucket loads of moisturiser.

Aside from the weather, Canberra is a good place to live. It’s small, it’s almost rural, it’s designed and best of all the people are friendly. Not Darwin friendly mind you, but pretty friendly. I like that as the national capital we have Eastern Grey kangaroos living all around us as well as foxes, wombats and echidnas. Having had the opportunity to visit cities like Washington DC, London and Ottawa, Canberra is not an architecturally grand or even beautiful city. It doesn’t have the capital feel that Washington DC and London have. None of that matters though, it’s our capital. More people should visit Canberra to see what goes on and then go and visit Darwin and Brisbane and far north Queensland to warm up and see really beautiful parts of the best country in the world.

So how much longer can I live here? I like my job, I like my friends here, but I don’t like the weather.

I like that one twitter follower once called me Canberra’s eating machine. That will do me :-)

Brisbane

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I’m currently in Brisbane to visit my kids. Brisbane is where I was born and spent 30 years learning skills in medicine, pathology and specifically clinical microbiology. I grew up here. I love Brisbane. I’m a Brisbane boy. I’m a Queenslander.

This year I didn’t get an opportunity to go to The Ekka with my daughters. Maybe next year. Miss15, ever thoughtful bought me a hat from one of her trips to The Show.

Me in a new hat from Miss15

Today we joined up with one of my brothers (Mr41) and his son (NephewMr6) to watch a junior rugby match.

Brisbane is beautiful in August. The sky is clear and the morning cool but not cold like Canberra (which has the skies but the trees aren’t all evergreen). Canberra’s deciduous trees remind me of death and the cycle of life. This picture says it all, great sky, beautiful trees and rugby posts. Only summer is better with a swimming pool or surf beach.

A perfect scene. A winter’s morning in Brisbane. Evergreen trees and rugby posts.

While Miss11 and Miss15 went to gymnastics training I took Miss17 shopping. She was hungry after missing breakfast because of a sleep in and an early start to the junior rugby match.

We both had the same idea. A crumbed chicken and coleslaw sandwich.

Crumbed chicken and coleslaw sandwich with pineapple drink

After gymnastics we had to attend the Clayfield College open day. Miss11 and Miss15 have scholarships to attend school here. Without the half scholarships I could not afford the fees.

I tried an ice cream treat I’d not heard of before, viz., drippin dots. I chose caramel and brownie. It was really very nice.

Caramel and brownie Drippin Dots

This afternoon Miss17 captured an image of me.

Me in shades

Tonight I took Dad, Mum and the girls out to dinner to Hog’s Breath Cafe for an early father’s day celebration. These restaurants have a great Aussie history. Many people assume an origin in the USA, the truth is they started in Queensland and have spread across Australia. Importantly, the franchise is a big supporter of motor sport and rugby league in Australia.

I had a steak and rib combination for a main meal.

Steak and rib combination with a side of calamari and Béarnaise sauce

For dessert the girls helped me share a sundae.

Hoggies Rocky Road Sundae which is enough for four

Mum and Dad had profiteroles which Miss15 informed us are made from choux pastry which resembles cabbages. Miss15 likes to pronounce choux as chucks just to make us laugh.

Profiteroles

I’ll be back in Canberra tomorrow.

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The long awaited Daydream Island blog post

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The Whitsunday Islands are off the central coast of Queensland (click for map). They have been a popular holiday destination for many Australians and tourists from overseas for decades. The islands are ideally situated for those not wishing to go too far north and the associated airfares plus it offers great access to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The GBR is the largest coral reef on Earth and it’s home to an amazing collection of Australian native fauna and flora. If I hadn’t studied medicine at university I would have read my first choice, i.e., zöology and studied marine biology. I often joke I didn’t read zöology at university because I couldn’t grow a decent beard. At the time all the famous zöologists had big bushy beards. Maybe if I win lotto I can resign my job and attend James Cook University in Townsville and read zöology.

We nearly didn’t make it. On the Thursday evening before the trip Miss15 was at training and sustained a neck injury. She was taken to hospital in an ambulance and later released feeling very stiff and sore. She had hyperflexed her neck as a result of falling on her head at speed after a mishap at gymnastics training. I spoke with her a few times on the Friday from Canberra asking if she was okay and she claimed she could still swim and snorkel. I asked if she asked the attending emergency resident if she could swim and she sheepishly said no. I figured I’d assess her when I saw her. Given her physique and level of fitness I wasn’t overly concerned.

Friday was an interesting day at work. Something came up that needed urgent attention so my anxiety levels immediately rose. The last thing I wanted was to be recalled and not allowed to take leave. Fortunately I have very good bosses and colleagues and I was able to leave a little early to make my flight to Brisbane.

At the airport I indulged in a few chicken and leek pies at the Qantas business lounge.

Chicken and leek pies in the Qantas business lounge in Canberra (CBR) (iPhone)

The flight wasn’t too bad except I had to travel via Sydney. I could not get a discounted ticket direct to Brisbane and rather than pay $500 I elected to pay $399 for the fare between Canberra and Brisbane via Sydney. The cost of flying is significant. I’m not sure how the taxation on the emission of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbon emissions and other gases into the environment will affect airfares, I expect they will rise dramatically. This will have consequences in terms of higher costs and reducing my flexibility to see my children.

On arriving in Brisbane my parents were happy to see me and I was ecstatic to see Miss11 and Miss15. Sadly I didn’t get to see Miss17 this trip. She had already had a holiday to Darwin to see her old school friends and was back at school. After a good chat and reviewing school report cards we went to bed early in anticipation of an exciting day ahead.

The next morning we readied ourselves for the flight to Proserpine (PPP) airport. We were flying Jetstar which is associated with Qantas so I was able to access the Qantas business lounge in Brisbane and we could enjoy a light breakfast. This yoghurt would be a sign of things to come.

Yoghurt in the Brisbane (BNE) Qantas business lounge (iPhone)

About now I should mention that I captured a few hundred images on a variety of cameras. I’ve chosen a selection and uploaded them to Flickr as a set. You can view the slideshow by following the link here http://www.flickr.com//photos/garylum/sets/72157630503718798/show/ I suggest clicking on show info in the top right corner and selecting the slow play (under options) to read some descriptions I’ve added.

You can also see the individual images via this link http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAxq9L7 and click through them all to also read the descriptions. Please feel free to leave comments.

The Jetstar experience was really good. It was much better than my previous Jetstar flight to Hobart for work. I was able to use my iPad and read some Game of Thrones while having a soft drink.

The Proserpine airport is a neat well run small airport. The bags came off quickly and we were on our way through Proserpine to Abel Point Marina in Airlie Beach for our boat connection to Daydream Island. We arrived shortly before 1300 AEST and started to explore after unpacking. From our room we had a view of the water. The room was large and comfortable.

The room was large and neat and well appointed (iPhone)

This is the view from our balcony (Nikon D90)

Miss11 was feeling peckish so we ventured to the Boat House Bakery and enjoyed a snack. Miss11 asked for a plain meat pie and was delighted to see the bakery brands the pies.

Daydream Island meat pie (iPhone)

On the way to the south side of the island we came across a very cute rock wallaby (I’m guessing a Proserpine rock wallaby Petrogale persephone). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-wallaby

A very cute wallaby (iPhone)

The wallabies were plentiful and best seen at night and the early morning. Because of the rain I didn’t get any more good photographs.

After lunch we walked around the north side of the island and visited the three mermaids on Mermaid Beach.

The three mermaids at Mermaid Beach on Daydream Island (iPhone)

While this is no demonstration of exercise, this link will give an indication of the geography of the island http://runkeeper.com/user/garydlum/activity/100125166

The resort has a lagoon water feature running through it. The glare even when overcast makes photography without a polarising lens difficult. I did get a nice image of an anemone fish in an anemone.

No it’s not Nemo (iPhone)

On the Sunday evening the resort had a seafood buffet. Need I say more! Check out the Flickr images. http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAxq9L7

While the prawns were fresh, the oysters had been frozen and the spanner crabs were not very fleshy. The baked coral trout was overcooked (this can be regarded as a crime against humanity for those who have enjoyed fresh coral trout) and should never be kept under heat lamps. The kids liked it though so I was pretty happy.

We spent a couple of hours in the reception area to allow our meal to digest (my dessert stomach, i.e., my œsophagus was quite full) while we listened to the band and the girls took advantage of the free wifi to download games to their iPod Touches. Back in our room I blogged a short post and then fell asleep in anticipation of Sunday. Snorkelling Sunday that is.

On Sunday morning we got up early and had our first resort breakfast. You can imagine it. A buffet of bacon, sausages, eggs, tomatoes, hash browns, mushrooms, fruits, cold meats, breads, yoghurts, fruit compotes, breakfast cereals, tea and coffee and juice. Each morning I had basically the same thing, some eggs and bacon plus yoghurt with honey from a comb plus dates and fruit compotes. You can see the theme on the Flickr site. http://flic.kr/s/aHsjAxq9L7

The boat trip to Knuckle Reef takes a few hours on an ocean going three tiered catamaran. The weather was bad and on Saturday the trip had been cancelled. We boarded with about fifty school children from the USA on a People to people program http://peopletopeople.com/ The winds were around 30 knots and the sea choppy. We were all advised to administer ourselves sea sickness medication. I had already bought a packet of crystallised ginger and took two Kwells as well. In the shipping lane the water was really rough and we were rocking and rolling all over the place. Passengers were falling off their seats and many people were going green and the look of nausea was common. On the trip back it was worse and most of the passengers spent the entire journey out the back making room for afternoon tea and saying g’day to Ralph. It’s a pity because the lunch they served us was delicious. Miss11 and Miss15 slept through most of it. They were happy with that except on the trip back we had a pod of Southern Right whales alongside the starboard side and I saw one breach the water and almost jump right into the air. Only the end of its tail was in the water. It was a wonderful sight, yet my sleeping beauties missed it.

We spent nearly four hours on the pontoon at Knuckle Reef. The pontoon is operated by Cruise Whitsundays http://www.cruisewhitsundays.com/ The pontoon has attached to it a flat bottomed boat, a semi submersible vehicle, a helicopter pad, an underwater observatory and platforms for scuba diving and snorkelling. It also has a cool water slide. The website has all the details. It’s worth a day out to do this.

The pontoon on Knuckle Reef operated by Cruise Whitsundays (Nikon AW100)

Photography in the semisubmersible and in the flat bottomed boat isn’t very good because of the glass. Not only is it thick but it’s not cleaned very often. On Sunday the general water visibility was poor. The tide was high and the particulate load was high. Most coral in the area is brown and without flash lighting the images are mostly of poor contrast. That said I captured some reasonable images and have put them on the Flickr slideshow.

The highlight for me is snorkelling. I love being in the water. Water sports for me are the epitome of athleticism. The feeling of being in and underwater is difficult to better. The thought that I would take Miss11 and Miss15 out into the water with me and dive down to see fish and coral has been keeping me going for months. I’d been so looking forward to this small period of time. I wasn’t disappointed. Miss11 had fun. It was her first time and she was a little apprehensive. The water was really cold and using the snorkel for the first time was a little confusing. If we’d had time we could have practised in a swimming pool. Miss15 loved it. Even with her injured neck nothing was going to stop her. She swam on the surface and learnt to dive and blow water clear of her snorkel like a professional. I just loved it. If I could be a super hero I would be Aqua Man or Marine Boy.

This image was captured by the the Cruise Whitsundays professional photographer. It’s me giving him a two thumbs up rather than the recognised “I’m okay” sign.

This is a short video clip of a large wrasse that is well known to the Cruise Whitsundays marine biologists and diving instructors.

The trip back was quiet, the girls slept, I saw a whale and most of the passengers were hurling their lunch over the back of the boat.

That night we enjoyed the carvery. We slept well that night.

Monday morning came and we were greeted with steady rain and strong winds. We had hoped to go snorkelling off the beach but the weather was against us. We spent the morning playing a marathon game of Monopoly and after lunch ventured to the resort pool and had a splash in the cold water. Fortunately they have a few heated spas and we enjoyed warming ourselves in those. Later in the afternoon we played cards and thought about dinner options.

With the rain falling all day we wanted to go to the south side for dinner at the Fish Bowl Restaurant. We were issued plastic ponchos and caught a ride on a gold buggy.

For me a really good hamburger has pineapple and beetroot. I wasn’t disappointed. I also had my first dessert pizza which was a slight let down. I think if it had been lathered in Nutella I would have been happier. That said it was a good day.

An Aussie burger with beetroot and pineapple and chips, lots of lovely crispy beer battered chips (iPhone)

The apple and cinnamon dessert pizza (iPhone)

Tuesday morning came and we had hoped for a fine day to walk around the island one last time. The rain was heavier and even though we saw some wallabies it was not walking weather. So we ate breakfast and packed our bags. We spent most of the day on a boat, in a bus and in an aeroplane. We flew back Virgin Australia which was also really good. We had individual screens and I could watch the Food Channel. It made me think of the kilograms I had added to my weight. I now need to reduce my food intake and increase my exercise schedule.

On the way back I checked-in on Foursquare and became the mayor of Proserpine. I’m not sure how the real mayor would feel about that. During the weekend I also because mayor of Daydream Island most of the other places there too including the resort itself.

Proserpine https://www.evernote.com/shard/s183/sh/e6687f05-f3fc-4231-9975-8ecf53d080d1/b8a80b4b47bbb3e87826526411f486bc

Daydream Island https://www.evernote.com/shard/s183/sh/7a36ec0d-4935-4b24-9df4-4747665475a6/e3fbfda592ca8c6742f11b9c2ad35bae

Daydream Island resort and spa https://www.evernote.com/shard/s183/sh/43112f7a-c9b1-4adf-9ba8-3ae09030a4cd/c66798f1c45fb4d00231c5a66cb074ef

We got back to Brisbane in time to have some of Mum’s chicken curry. That capped a delightful holiday for me, Miss11 and Miss15.

My Mum’s chicken curry (iPhone)

Just in case you’re interested, staying at the resort is expensive. They have to ship everything in. You pay for what you get. I am fortunate that I could save for this by putting away some money every pay day. We didn’t buy gifts or souvenirs. We didn’t go and do fancy things or hire sporting equipment. It was expensive but worth it just for the smiles on the girls faces. I have wonderful daughters who are gracious, generous and always grateful. It was a holiday to always remember.

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Rainy day on Daydream Island

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I’m in bed and doing this from my iPhone. Today it rained all day. We sat inside for much of it playing board games and cards. We played a marathon Monopoly game with Miss11 winning big time.
We also swam even though it was about 15 °C in the water. Fortunately there was also a warm spa pool to warm up in.
Tonight we had our final dinner. We had to wear plastic ponchos to get to dinner (photos later). I’m now full after a burger, pizza, dessert pizza and ice cream.
Tomorrow we leave and I spend a night in Brisbane before heading back to Canberra.

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