Australia Day

Today 26/01/11 is Australia Day, a public holiday here in Australia. A day to visit friends and enjoy a barbie. It was hot today, 33C. We were invited to Nick & Debbie (our south african friends) who invited a few of their friends and a neighbour round. We used our electric bikes to get there. We had a nice cold buffet on the verandah. It was nice to meet their friends and swap stories of lives before emigrating, two couples were from South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Cockatoo passed away

Unfortunately we heard from Debbie today that she found the cockatoo dead at the base of the tree in the garden. The vet did say it was very thin and malnourished. Hopefully it didnt suffer too much.

Electric Bikes

We took delivery of our electric bikes in the weekend. We've been out twice now exploring our hilly neighbourhood. Its just great when you get to a hill you just turn on the electric power and wizz up the hill. There's a really steep one to Debbies place and we managed that no problem. Also going into a headwind is no no problem.
They say you go out more often on a electric bike than a normal bike and I believe it. It's great!

Cockatoo Rescue

Today we carried out a wildlife intervention. Inge's friend Debbie feeds the wild cockatoos and the one in the pictures was having a hard time feeding due to its bill being too long.

We managed to catch him on Debbies verandah and it was a trip to the vet to see what could be done. It seems he/she has a bird Aids called "beak and feather" disease which is not curable, seems it affects parrots and the like. Nothing much we can do.

The vet cut his beak and we released him back at Debbies home. Debbie will keep feeding him and we'll see how he gets on.

Community Spirit here in Brisbane

Today we went to help in the clean up of my mate Denis's devastated house in Yeronga, Boonah Gliding Club was well represented and others that I may have missed from yesterday.

The mud was thick like grey toothpaste, Inge and I spent the afternoon filling wheelbarrows and hosing and brushing out all the mud from Denis's back garden and garage

Its at hard times like these that you really see that the community pitches in and helps out the less fortunate, there were complete strangers helping out supplying assistance, food, drinks, etc.

Its going to be a tough time in the weeks and months ahead for many like Denis and yet he's still smiling and saying there are people worse off than him.

Jindalee is the suburb next to us on the rivers edge

This local newspaper has many stories of the Floods

http://www.couriermail.com.au/