Sunset on the Bay Redcliffe

... did have funny faces and by the way they flocked to the bridge as we walked over, they revealed that the residents obviously disobey the &#8216;Do not feed&#8217; notice! We were not very good at duck identification though, so we don&#8217;t know whether they were also ignoring the &#8216;Do not dump your domestic ducks&#8217; part of the sign.<br><br>We have had a fabulous time with Rosie, Steve and Bea. It has been so special to be able to be part of Trixie growing up and learning ...

... possessions packed loosely in the car I had just<br>decided to leave. OK, if I'm honest I guess it was also in the slightest part to escape the<br>constant west end drama between my sisters and the wafer thin peace accord on which<br>their relationship was built (the terms of which are more complicated and convoluted than any potential future ceasefire and land sharing agreement between the Israeli's and Palestinians would be), which made the irony of my first stop all the more compounding.

... at an all time low of 7% capacity and by the time I left the dam was at an unheard of 94%. This coupled with the fact that in the last two summers, England has had the highest rainfall and worst summers on record, while I was living there. Global warming, climate change or just me? You decide? Okay I don't really think I've got rain goddess like status and powers but I'm over the bad weather, after all that's one of the reasons I left London!! And ...

... nice in this new floaty blouse she'd bought, teamed with Jeans and her new shoes. We started off at the bars local to use but they were Soooo expensive and the last one we went in had an 18th party there. Yes I said 18th !! So the average age was between cradle and 18, so we felt a bit old and decided to go more into town. Got into town and went for one at the backpackers bar, but they all seemed really drunk as though they had been out all day. It's ...

... but found it was closed for cleaning. Worried that our bag was not labelled properley (we had no room so had no room number to write on the bag) and therefore a potential for destruction Yvette tried to get in to ask, they said it would be ok. So we went out to find a cafe to have something to eat and walked through the South Bank which was like a beach and a park and a pool and cafes and other forms of entertainment next to the ...

... and attend listening parties and all that jazz. It's pretty epic. So what did I do to mark the occasion? Well unfortunately Matt had to work, so he didn't get home until the early afternoon, at which point we sat around and wondered what we were going to do since our other friends all had stuff going on. We eventually settled on going to South Bank, which is like this fancy park area across from the main city of Brisbane ...

... city) to the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary where we saw lots of indigenous animals, stroked a koala, fed the kangaroos and saw lots of presentations about the animals. The koalas were very cute but it was mating season and the males have a very strange mating call like a pig snorting/Stuart snoring which was quite entertaining, especially during the man's talk in the koala enclosure - he had to stop several times to wait for them to stop. Stuart was ...

... were off to see Susan in Scarborough. This is the Susan Davies that has the same name as the mother-in-law, which was very scary when we saw the name on the list of our tour group in Vietnam. Anyway, we had promised Susan three months ago that we would pop by, so off we went. She lives in a place called Scarborough, near Redcliffe. It's about 50kms north of Brisbane. Funny seeing Michael & Desley and Susan within a matter of days! We got to Scarborough about 5pm and headed for ...

... It stretched across the boardwalk - at head height! I was touched to receive an appreciative grunt from my only-born in recognition of my blinding reflexes. We happened upon a bird hide, which promised a lot but delivered, well, zilch. Apparently, Moreton Bay is a vital link in the chain of habitats along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. From September to April more than 50 000 migratory waders stop over in Moreton Bay, arriving ...

... jetty attracted little fish that were an easy night time snack. Now the feed is official business, and the tourist line up with a fish in hand to take their turn to feed a dolphin. I have to say - it was very cool! You get to wade into the water with a handler and feed your fish, watch your dolphin and have it swim around your legs. One of the regulars had just given birth and her 3 day old calf came to the feed. They fed her by throwing fish out to her, as her calf ...