Foxton Street views

Here are a few views of Foxton Street looking up and down the hill...yes its quite steep certainly different to Holland. The buildings at the top of the street are the doctor's on the left and the shopping mall complex. The older building is a typical “Queenslander” with a tin roof.
Just down the road is an accountant were Dave got some advice about business issues.

NL versie
Hierbij een paar uitzicht foto's van Foxton Street met zicht de heuvel op en neer ...ja het is zeker stijl te noemen; wel wat anders dan in Nederland. De gebouwen gelegen boven aan de weg zijn die van de huisarts en dat van het winkelcentrum.. Het oud uitziende gebouw is een typisch “Queenlander” met een tinnen dak.
Om de hoek zit een accountant waar Dave is langsgeweest voor advies omtrent zaken.

Droelie

In answer to a request as to how Droelie is doing here are a few photos. He has settled in well here in Foxton Street after his quarantine in Perth. Shortly after these photos were taken he jumped in the bushes chasing after a large lizard......

NL versie

In anwoord op een vraag hoe of het met Droelie gaat; zie hier een paar foto's. Hij is goed gewend op de Foxton Street na zijn quarantaine in Perth. Kort nadat deze foto's waren genomen sprong hij in de bosjes en zat achter een grote hagedis aan........

Boonah Gliding Club

On Saturday 25 October Dave went gliding at the Boonah Gliding Club which is located 1 hours drive south of Brisbane. The club has about 100 members and they have a hanger, clubhouse and grass strip runway just outside the small town of Boonah. The location is in what's called the “scenic rim” which is a range of mountains which are part of the main range of mountains which run down the east coast of Australia. The club website is here : http://www.boonahgliding.com.au

The atmosphere was very relaxed and laid back compared to the gliding club in Holland which suited Dave, he had two flights where the instructor wanted to see how he flew and whether he could locate the airstrip on the ground when he was flying. He passed the test and joined the club so now when he visits again he can fly solo as long as he doesn't go too far from the airfield.
The landscape was quite a suprise, once you drive 20 minutes out of Brisbane you are really out in the countryside, farmland with wide open spaces. Almost 80% of the population lives within 30km of the coast so the inland areas are quite empty. It really is a vast country and we haven't even scratched the surface of visiting anywhere yet. So something to do in the coming months.

NL VERSIE
Op zaterdag 25 oktober is Dave gaan vliegen bij de zweefvlieg club in Boonah, gelegen op een uur rijden ten zuiden van Brisbane. De club heeft ongeveer 100 leden, een hanger, clubhuis en een grasvliegstrook gelegen net buiten het dorp Boonah. De locatie is bij de “scenic rim” is een berglandschapgebied dat een onderdeel uitmaakt van het berglandschap dat loopt langs de Oost kust van Australie. De website van de vliegclub is: http://www.boonahgliding.com.au.

De sfeer was erg ontspannen en relaxt in vergelijking met de zweefvliegclub in Nederland hetgeen Dave wel goed uitkwam. Hij heeft 2 vluchten gemaakt onder toezicht van een instructeur die wilde bepalen of Dave kan vliegen en of hij in staat is om de vliegstrook te localiseren wanneer hij aan het vliegen is. Hij is geslaagd voor de test en heeft zich vervolgens aangemeld als lid van de club zodat hij bij een volgend bezoek solo mag vliegen zolang hij niet te ver van de vliegstek vandaan vliegt.

Het landschap was niet wat je ervan zou verwachten; zodra je 20 minuten met de auto buiten Brisbane bent bevindt je je op het platteland, een wijds open landschap met weilanden. Bijna 80% van de bevolking woont op een afstand van 30 km van de kust hetgeen inhoudt dat het binnenland erg leeg is. Het is een groot land en we hebben tot op heden nog maar nauwelijks iets van het gebied gezien. Genoeg te doen de komende tijd.

Foxton street garden

Here are some shots of the "garden" of the Foxton Street apartment.
As you can see its quite small, more like a concrete postage stamp than a garden but its private and somewhere for the cat to stretch his legs!
The plants are all tropical and wouldn't look out of place in a lush greenhouse in Europe.
At night it gets invaded by those small singing lizards that you also get in the tropics, they get quite vocal after it rains as well.

Sunday Markets & Irish Club Concert

View along the Brisbane River on way to the Sunday markets

Another Jacaranda tree...

The Irish Club on Elizabeth Street

Concert in the Irish Club with Claire Roche (harpist)
and the Tara Singers

On Sunday we went to the Sunday Markets on the riverside riverfront Lots of stalls selling all sorts of things, food, art, crafts, etc.

At 2pm we walked to the Irish Club to attend the concert of Claire Roche a harpist and singer, who was visiting Brisbane she was accompanied by the local Tara Singers as well as one of the singers telling jokes during the intervals..!

We were the youngest in the audience, average age was +70 I think. All the usual irish ballads were played, such as Rose of Tralee, Danny Boy, Amazing Grace, etc, etc. Lots for the audience to sing along to.

We managed to track down the Queensland Harp Society using google which includes a list of harp teachers so there should be some opportunity for Inge to continue her harp lessons.

Foxton Street, Brisbane

Foxton Street first impressions

This is our apartment in Foxton Street. The middle level contains the living room and kitchen.

The view looking from the street towards our

apartment complex

Inge feeding the lorikeets at the Koala Sanctuary

The Jacaranda trees are now in bloom (bright purple flowers)

This photo doesn't do them justice, they are so vivid and beautiful.

A local inhabitant at the Koala Sanctuary nearby

These are just a few photos taken in the last week. The apartment is a very nice 2-3 bedroom townhouse apartment with a garage underneath, room for 2 cars as well as a small postage stamp size garden. In size the apartment is about the same as the Koperwiek in Harmelen was.

In the weekend we visited the Koala Sanctuary located 5 minutes drive away. They have 130 Koalas of all ages including mothers with little joeys in their pouches poking their heads out, you couldn't see anything more adorable. The Sanctuary also has other wildlife including kangaroos and less cuddly animals like snakes and lizards but its the koalas which are the crowd pullers. It is situated in nice woodland, well worth another visit.

Holiday in Perth

This house is where we stayed during our stay. It was from Sonja's neighbour opposite who was away in the north of Western Australia. Droelie our cat really enjoyed the garden and it was nice to have breakfast in the garden.

The first few days we were busy with admin things such as registering for healthcare, etc.

It is springtime here in Australia now so in Western Australia there are lots of desert flowers in bloom. We took a few drives in the bush to have a look but the nicest show was at Kings Park in the centre of Perth.

Dave had an afternoon visiting one of Van Oord's dredgers in Fremantle.

Near to the house was Tomato Lake Park where there was wildlife to be seen, lots of ducks and the occaisonal black swan.

Departure from Holland & Singapore Stopover

Departure from Holland was on 2 September after staying a few days in Delft soaking up the nice weather. We stayed in a nice hotel on the Beestenmarkt so were right in the centre of old Delft.

On the way out to Perth we stopped in Singapore for 2 days. We took the opportunity to visit old friends Audrey, Lim, VJ and Catherine in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, The stopover was soon over and we had to drag our heaving luggage back to the airport for the last leg of the journey to Perth and our 3,5 week holiday with Sonja.

We visited Catherine's authentic timber house complex to see how her business was doing and while we were there Inge got her feet nibbled by small fish!