This looks fun Liliane. Beautiful skies, beautiful mountains and beautiful girl.
Papa and I headed down to Brisbane yesterday morning. When we arrived, Auntie Emma and wee Fergus were at the door to welcome us. Fergus was so excited and became even more excited when he saw the cardboard box Papa was carrying. In it were lots of pieces of roads that Papa had made for Fergus to play his cars on. Papa had painted the roads black so that they looked like bitumen and had also painted the white dashes on the road to distinguish the right and left for the cars to drive on. Fergus was thrilled and went upstairs to gather his big collection of cars together.
Once we had brought everything in from the car, we took the tracks and cars outside and had a cuppa sitting in Auntie Emma's beautiful garden. All the work has been finished now and Auntie Emma is really pleased with the outcome.
After lunch, Papa and Auntie Emma went to a timber yard that her architect had recommended her to go to. At the yard were various types of timber and one especially that Auntie Emma was to look at. Papa and Auntie Emma brought the samples of the timber home, much to Fergus' delight as he added the timber pieces to his 'road' collection. The timber looked lovely. It was a type of oak and had been finished in a 'distressed' look to look a bit like driftwood. Very soft colour, almost grey. Papa felt though that Auntie Emma could probably buy something a bit better and a lot cheaper elsewhere. I can't remember where the discussion finished but I think Auntie Emma is going to continue looking at different timbers. These timbers are for flooring upstairs in Auntie Emma and Uncle Michael's new house at Mt Coolum.
Through the week, Auntie Emma sent us three photographs her architect had sent her. They are just amazing. Even though the building of the house hasn't started yet, the architect was able to send computer images of what the house will look like and has even included furniture in the images too.
After Papa and Auntie Emma arrived home from the timber place, Auntie Emma and I headed off to have a look at bathroom stuff in a gorgeous bathroom shop quite near where she lives. The bathroom stuff was just gorgeous and I went round with Auntie Emma saying "I don't like that!" and "I don't like that!" I think this worked quite well as I was able to say why I didn't like something and Auntie Emma was able to narrow down her choices. It is so hard when you are faced with two thousand hand basins and you have to make a choice of one.
Then it was home, dinner and time to get ready for the concert. Auntie Emma had bought a ticket for me too which was a surprise. I thought it was going to be a musical night out for Papa and Auntie Emma. The concert was held in the Concert Hall at Southbank. As we drove alongside the river to Southbank, the city looked quite spectacular all lit up. The bridges too were all lit up and the one I especially like which resembles sails was lit up in a rose colour.
Once parked and into the concert hall area, Auntie Emma and Papa went off to get a drink and once they had bought them, they found me again and we wandered outside. "Oh! Look at that lovely view!" I said as I was looking over a balcony. Auntie Emma said "Turn around Mum!" which I did and there to my surprise was the city on the other side. "Oh my goodness!" I said. What a surprise it was. So beautiful.
Auntie Emma had managed to get good seats for the concert and not long after we were settled, Eddi Reader came on stage with her entourage. There were two guitarists, a bass player, an accordion player, and five young people from the Queensland National Orchestra; three violinists, a cellist and a bass player.
Eddi Reader is an amazing singer. Just wonderful! Every song she sang was wonderful. A couple of highlights though...
She lived part of her life in Maryhill which was a very poor part of Glasgow when she was a girl. She talked about parties her family would hold where they and their friends would get together. There was obviously quite a bit of drinking and smoking at the time and Eddi did an impersonation of her mother whose name was Jean. Jean was a really good singer and at some point in these parties, the family and friends would call on Jean to sing her favourite song. Jean was always a bit reticent about singing and would only sing after she was cajoled by everyone. So Eddi pretended to be her mother with a pretend cigarette in one hand and a pretend drink in the other. We the audience had to pretend to be the family and friends and cajole her into singing a song. It was hilarious. "Go on Jean!" we all shouted. "Nah!" said Jean as she smoked her imaginary cigarette. Finally she said "Oh! alright then!", placed her pretend drink on the pretend sideboard, pulled her jumper up to her neck and started to sing Moon River occasionally taking a smoke from her cigarette while she sang.
Although it was very funny and her singing just beautiful, as I watched and listened I imagined that Eddi's mind and heart were full of wonderful memories of her mother.
Another highlight was the last song; Auld Lang Syne. Apparently Robert Burns only wrote two verses of this famous song. He was not only a poet but a collector of poems and songs and other verses were from his collection.
Here's a link to Eddi Reader singing Auld Lang Syne at the opening of the Scottish Parliament. The Queen at the end doesn't look too enthusiastic!
As you can imagine Eddi Reader would like to see Scotland as an independent nation. "To put it simply", she says "England takes five pounds from us and gives us back three. They have been doing that for over three hundred years, but what makes it worse is the fact they tell us how to spend that three pounds."
I think the present leader in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon is going to ask again if the people of Scotland would like to be independent.
here she is singing another lovely song.
It was a great night.
Today after we drove home, I was supposed to go to my first garden club visit with my friend Carol. Unfortunately I was feeling really unwell with my tooth, headache, sore mouth, throat, and ear and telephoned Carol to cancel the visit. I also telephoned the dentist and they asked me a few questions and told me to stop taking the Codeine/Paracetamol tablets, which I have. I headed to bed and woke up around 1.00pm so had a lovely long sleep.
Hopefully I will feel a lot better tomorrow. I have an appointment to see the dentist again on Monday and will cancel the appointment if I feel more improved by then.
Well my dears I shall away. Looking forward to talking on Sunday.
xxxxNannyxxxx
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