Funeral For a Friend & a Pub

Hi!

Well. Am sorry for not writing last week. My little heart wasn't in it. Found out that Friday that a good friend of mine, JP, died suddenly in Tombstone of a heart attack (http://www.legacy.com/tucson/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=86291021).

Top that off with the fact Patrick and Liz closed the Pub that Saturday and you have a recipe for, well, a few glasses of wine and sad parties! Well, sad parties anyways. Ok, maybe one or two memorial drinks. It's what JP would have wanted. So yeah. No heart or energy to write. But, JP's funeral has come and gone, the pub is locked up tight, the lights are off and the taps are dry, and here I am!
Will try to backtrack through any little semi-exciting things I might have gotten up to........

I know, one day lastlast week I played hooky from work; just couldn't haul my tired butt out of bed. It's been really warm and humid at night which makes it tough to sleep even with a fan on "hi" the whole night! So woke up that morning and just couldn't move. But, as how it usually happens, by 10am I had the energy of a thousand oxen (hmmm)! So I took myself out to run errands and buy things like bungee cords and a Brisbane map book. Now I can tie stuff to the little scooter and know where I'm going with it!

And then, after the bungee cord bonanza, on the spur of the moment, I took myself to the MacArthur Museum. It's this neat little museum here in the middle of town. When he was running the war in the South Pacific, he based himself out of the 8th floor of the AMP building (now I think it's called MacArthur Towers) for 2 years. It's full of stuff you'd expect - maps, steering columns from fallen Japanese planes, Naval stuff, gas masks, flags, matchbooks, and then there's all this neat stuff from Brisbane's perspective. Basically, when they noticed things were getting out of hand down here, they asked for a little help from the US, and did they arrive. Brisbane went from roughly 350,000 people to something like 450,000 - 500,000, and that was just in town! Ahhh, I could go on because it was so neat, but you can scope out their website.... http://www.macarthurmuseumbrisbane.org/

I really liked it, spent ages in there looking at everything. I was mainly interested in it all from the Aussies point of view and the fact that my Grandad came through here very briefly on his way to New Guinea. It was very informative and the staff were really nice and helpful.

So what else..... last weekend, on the 3rd, was one year to the day that I arrived here in Australia! So Mave and I went to lunch at the little restaurant where I took myself to lunch the day I arrived. Called the Plaza Bistro or something like that. Lovely spot right on the river. That was all I really felt like doing. I had big plans to do something very touristy like go on the bridge walk over the Story Bridge, or go rock climbing on the Kangaroo Point cliffs, or even just float up and down the river on the City Cat ferry, but no. No energy, too hot and too sad. And yeah, that night they had last drinks at the pub. I ended up leaving around 9pm I was so pooped. What a Grandma I am anymore. And then the next day, Sunday, Mave and Roger had a BBQ. That was nice, met some more new people. Mave is constantly finding new people to invite to her and Roger's for a BBQ. This time it was a gal she works with and her husband. They're from France and both named Fred. Very French. Really nice. They've been here about 6 years or so. Personally, I'd take Southwest France, but then again, I know how it is to want a change of scenery!

And then it was back to work for a fairly long and busy week. JP's funeral was that Monday, and I looked into flying over, but after the flight and a week off of work with no pay, well, it came to around $3,500. I think JP would've understood. So the week took a while to get through. I was just looking forward to this weekend where I had no BBQ's to go to and no pubs to spend money in. So this weekend I rented 4 whole movies, cleaned, went for a very lovely swim, and now am getting ready to make my mean spaghetti. It's been pretty hot and humid still (but not too hot for mean spaghetti!). But I think I'm acclimating better than when I first arrived! I honestly thought I'd die. But I'm learning if you need to do stuff like clean you gotta do it early. And then move as little as possible for the rest of the day. Needless to say, because of the heat and humidity, my adventure walks have vanished. When it cools off I'll take myself and my flabby legs back out there! Only now, with the little scooter (and the map book!), I can shake it up a little and check out new, far flung places! Must start a little list.....

And that's about it! So yeah, sorry for not writing last week. I started to a couple times but couldn't write more than "Well.". But anyways, here I am! All's well! Kona is fine, if not a little fatter because it's just too hot for him to chase ping pong balls off the edge of the balcony. And the scooter is going good, getting a little better every time I take it out. It's so cool. I love it.

So there! I hope you're all well up there! I ended up renewing my apartment lease for another 6 months, so come on down!!!!!!

BYE!

J!

P.S. It's done that weird thing with the date again. It's Sunday the 11th Feb, 'round 5:07pm. Sheesh.