When I used to live over at Bracken Ridge, the Durhams used to come over each year just before Christmas, and we’d all walk over to Wickfield Street, where the first dozen (or so) houses on either side of the road put on a fairly impressive display of Christmas lights. Obviously, this tradition couldn’t be kept up while we were living overseas, but last year, we resumed right where we’d left off with our annual Christmas expedition to Bracken Ridge.

Boy were we disappointed when we found out that there were no lights on display!

So this year, instead of suffering disappointment at the hands of thoughtless tenants who don’t attempt to out-do Chevy Chase, we decided to do a little bit of research, and find ourselves an alternate source of lighting spectacular. As it turns out, there’s a house just around the corner from us at Bowers Road South, who won the 4KQ Christmas Lights competition for Brisbane North!

Clearly we had to go and investigate, and it wasn’t long before we discovered exactly why they were the winners. Firstly, their plot of land is huge, and they open it all up for the public to walk through. And, the place is covered in lights!

And it’s not just lights either; they have a whole “rainforest walk” to go through, a huge model train set, a model European city, a sleigh for the kids to sit in, and even a face-in-hole scene for the Julians of the world.

The only downside I can see to a display like this (apart from the obvious power bill) is that I don’t know how they can top it next year. Only one way to find out, I guess!

We’ve just returned from a glorious long weekend in Mt Tamborine, where we joined the Durhams in a magnificent celebration of Amyfest 2011! Janelle found us some superb accommodation in Eagle Heights, at a place called the Sky House.

The views were spectacular! We could see all the way down Tamborine mountain and out to the Gold Coast, sweeping from Coolangatta up to South Stradbroke Island. Oscar insisted we get up early each morning to appreciate the spectacular sunrises, and moonrise was just as impressive in the evenings.

Most of our time was spent exploring the national parks, hunting for geocaches, playing board/card games, and just relaxing around the fire. We drank loads of espresso (obviously!), and we exercised the well equipped kitchen at every meal. Best of all, we gave birth to a new society, whose sole purpose is to promote the appreciation of ham. Not ironically, we named it The Ham Appreciation Society, and we will be actively recruiting members wherever bad ham is sold!

Taking things up a notch on her actual birthday, Amy decided we should trolley along to the high-ropes course at Adventure Parc on Sunday. We arrived shortly after they opened, and we were rewarded with the whole park to ourselves for the first hour!

It was fantastic fun – extremely challenging in parts (especially on the red and black courses), but incredibly rewarding at the end. My muscles are still aching from some of the games!

We felt very privileged to be invited along to Amyfest 2011 and absolutely loved spending the weekend away with our friends!

More photos in the Amyfest 2011 photo album.

There are few people in this world who are as reliably inspirational as The Durhams, and so it pleased us to no end to be invited along to Dandelion and Driftwood to help celebrate Nelly’s Birthday.

We enjoyed a four course afternoon-tea menu, consisting of two rounds of coffee (or tea, but why would you bother?), and two rounds of snacks. I opted for the pikelets with jam and cream for snack number one, and I would have it again in a heartbeat! The cream was so fresh and thick that it reminded me of clotted cream which I miss so dearly from England! Round two was something that had a very fancy name that I don’t remember; it definitely had the words “french”, “chocolate”, and “cake” in it, but in reality it was a chocolate cupcake with a malteaser on top. Also delicious, but it didn’t hold a candle (sparkler?) to the pikelets.

Being a cafe that also roasts their own coffee beans, I had very high expectations of their coffee. And, all the awards plastered on the wall suggested that I would not be disappointed, and indeed, I was not! It was excellent; I particularly enjoyed the affogato I had for coffee round number two.

It was also great to meet some of the characters from the Durham’s lives that we’ve heard so much about through the years! We were especially pleased to be seated next to Emily-Jane (Nelly’s neice, though you’d swear they were sisters) on one side, and Richard and Karen (David’s sister and her husband, who get mentioned in many a Durham tale) on the other side.

Our afternoon of dining finished with a very generous slice of the fairy-floss cake. Yes, fairy floss! Though it wasn’t made of fairy floss as I had hoped; probably a good thing, as it would have had to be pretty dense to hold all that icing up!

We hope you had an awesome birthday Nelly, and more importantly, we hope the next twenty-one (or so ) years are just as good as the first!

A few photos online in the Nelly’s Birthday photo gallery.

Of course, by “on record” here, I mean “it’s the hottest weekend that I can remember since the last ridiculously hot weekend that we had”, which now that I think about it, I can’t really remember when it was. See, that’s what age, plus a lack of sleep do to you. Also, colours look subtly different.

Anyway, Kristy pointed out that every story on the gerrod.com front-page except for one, featured a picture of food, so be prepared for that trend to continue with this:

Kablamo! Bet you didn’t see that coming! In fact, this delightful morsel of a lamb bone is representative of the highlight of our weekend – an afternoon/evening with the Durhams. We hung out with them on Saturday at their delightful abode at Woody Point, where it must have been at least seven degrees cooler than it was in Everton Hills. I tell ya, if it wasn’t such a commute to work every day, I’d be moving there tomorrow.

Not only did our afternoon have some geocaching, some ping pong, and obviously some roast lamb, but we also watched the first episode of Survivor: Redemption Island, which featured the most amazing tribal council that I’ve ever seen. Apparently, it went for over two hours off the air! Thank goodness for editing!

The Durhams have been holidaying at Bribie for the last week or so, and told us that we should pop over for a visit. Prior to Saturday, I can’t remember the last time I visited Bribie island – and I’m pretty sure that I had never been to Woorim, or the “surf beach” as it’s known. To be honest, I didn’t even know that Bribie had a surf beach, so I was quite surprised when David told me to bring my bodyboard when we came!

It took us about an hour-and-a-half to get there, because Oscar was fussy in the car so we had to make a pit-stop. Turns out he was just hungry, so it’s a good thing we made it just in time for afternoon tea! Oscar seemed to thoroughly enjoy his meal, as confirmed by his classic “milk drunk” face.

After afternoon tea, we hit the surf. As if I hadn’t been surprised enough to learn that Bribie has a surf beach, I was even more surprised to find that it was actually true! Sure, we didn’t get pounded by the largest waves I’ve ever caught in my life, but they easily big enough for David, Laura and I to have boatload of fun for an hour or so!

David wisely called the time for us to head back in, just before a massive storm hit the beach. We didn’t get too much thunder and lightning, though I guess any of it is enough to scare you back indoors! The smell of nitrogen in the air from all the rain was just delightful – its one of my favourite things about Australia! And I think Alby appreciated the wash.

We rounded off our visit with a delicious BBQ dinner, and then a thrashing at Settlers at the hands of Laura Amy. All in all a great way to spend a Saturday!

Can’t beat dinner with the Durhams to conclude your Sunday night. David and Nelly were gracious enough to cook us chilli chicken, with waffles and ice-cream for dessert, and a supurb coffee (complete with wafer biscuit) for supper. Brilliant!

 

Kristy and I trolleyed to Enchiladas at Aspley tonight, in a bid to use up another Entertainment book voucher. As always, the food was excellent, and the staff were friendly. I was a very happy lad to find out that they sell Dos Equis Bière – a beer that I haven’t had since being posted in Arizona with MineStar. At $7.20 a bottle, I restricted myself to only a single – but I am eager to purchase a carton.

Anyway – Kristy and I both ordered fajitas, and being in a daring mood I decided to crank up some of their 10/10 hot sauce on mine. I managed to get 3 drops spread thinly over my tortilla before calling it a night. So, in the spirit of the Durham Ski Trip, the challenge is on. Durhams – let me know when you’re available to take up the gauntlet…

I came home this evening after enjoying a delightful dinner with The Durhams to find that Ben was nowhere to be found! Immediately my paranoid (yet creative) mind started thinking about the aliens that may have captured him, and the horrible things that they may have been doing to him…

Luckily my fears were quickly put to rest when he arrived safely home about 10 minutes later. No aliens to be found.

After a gruelling tennis match with The Durhams, everybody came back to my place for a coffee. And what goes with coffee better than Grandma Durham’s home made pumpkin scones? “Nothing”, if you ask me. Your cooking is top shelf Grandma Durham, your pumpkin scones rock!

Whilst hanging with David, Laura, and Amy Durham, I was lucky enough to become an “honorary Durham” for the afternoon. And as it turns out, 3 Durhams in the car plus an honorary Durham is enough to get you the famous, “Durham Park”. The Durham Park, of course, is the parking spot closest to where you want to go. And the theory goes, the more Durhams you have in the car, the better the Durham Park that you are given. (That is, the quality of car park that you obtain is directly proportional to the number of Durhams that you have in your car. Which would be very handy when you’re shopping at Coles on Pensioner Wednesday).

Post securing Durham Park, the four of us enjoyed a swim at Suttons Beach, followed by “The Dolph” for dinner. A close game of scrabble finished off a fantastic afternoon/evening.