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Brisbane from our apartment

We had a bonzer holiday in Australia.

We started off in Brisbane where Cate’s mother was in hospital - so we visited her each day and then just mooched about.

Cate was happy with the accommodation I had booked!

Then we went to the Hunter Valley near Sydney to stay at an Alpaca farm with a whole bunch of relatives. Cate made friends with some Alpacas but we couldn’t take any with us.

Then we stayed with the Hendersons in the Hunter Valley and so flew from Newcastle to Brisbane to catch our flight home.

I had allowed oodles of time between flights but we were late leaving Newcastle and then were put in a holding pattern over Brisbane so by the time we landed had to go like the clappers to get to the International terminal to catch our flight.

One would normally take the shuttle bus to go from the domestic terminal to the international terminal but we were running very late indeed so we took a taxi. The taxi driver was so incensed by this that he berated us for the entire 5 minute journey.

We only just made the flight and had an uneventful trip home. Except that Australia is a long way away. The epic trip home took us 35 hours door to door.

We had very little in the way of internet connections during the trip. I suppose I could have blogged – but I decided to take a break.

But I missed you all terribly and it’s good to be back.

Normal service will resume shortly.

Thank you Spain

Stadtpark 22 June

For some reason I had imagined that Australians were more jingoistic - in respect of sport – than other countries.

Whenever the Olympics or international events were held – in which Australia was represented – we always got nauseating coverage of every Australian contestant  - and bugger all information about anything else.

But my experience since being in Austria – and watching British TV – is that they are just as bad - if not worse.

At the end of events they will – for example – interview British athlete Nancy Nudge - who came 12^th in the Hop, Flop and Drop – and may not even tell us who won.

All we are getting on SKY Sports at the moment is endless talk about the British athletes and their prospects for the games.  I think they start soon - and I am not looking forward to it at all. But I guess most countries are the same – unfortunately.

However – a piece of good news. The Italians were soundly thrashed by the Spanish in the final of Euro 2012.

I hate the Italian Football Team.

I hate them because they cheat – a lot. In the 2006 World Cup Australia nearly made it to the Quarter Finals and in the game against Italy held them to a draw. In the last minute of play an Italian player took a dive to get a penalty and Italy won the game. The Italian Cheating Diving Team then won the World Cup.

My research since then has shown that the Italians are probably the worst cheats in world football - but that their fans expect them to cheat - because winning is the only thing that counts. The statistics from that World Cup show that they were awarded the most number of fouls (i.e. they dived more than anyone else).

Anyway – whenever there is an international competition I now have to put a curse on Italy. I know this is tedious but someone has to do it.

This time I was feeling particularly vindictive so I let them get to the final – so as to maximize the hurt and humiliation.

I apologize to those Italians whom I know and love but – you brought it on yourselves.

At least there were no dickwits

Paphos Mosaics

She went to the airport in Peoria but because of storms in the Washington area her plane did not arrive - so she had to go back to the hotel. They were not particularly surprised to see her - and gave her her old room back. 

There is a golf championship being played at the Congressional course in Maryland and I was watching it last night and saw the enormous amount of storm damage that had been done to the course during the previous evening.

There were so many trees damaged and uprooted that the officials  they did not allow spectators onto the course – so the golfers played without an audience – probably the first time this has ever happened. It was eerie not having any spectator noise but at least we did not have dickwits shouting 'garn the hole' after every shot. 

It is ferociously hot here at the moment but the air conditioning is holding up so it is a  quite manageable 26° in the apartment.

The cats are not very sensible in the heat. They can always find the warmest spot in cold weather but during summer – no matter how hot it is – they can’t work out that the bathroom floors are the coolest places in the apartment. 

Our next adventure is home leave and we depart for Australia on Friday. First stop is Brisbane to see Cate’s family and of course her mother in hospital.

We have only a brief overnight stay in Sydney because we are meeting my clan – all of them – on an Alpaca farm in the Hunter Valley. Not that there are that many of us – just three brothers and our families.

This is such an auspicious occasion that even Molly is coming home from Paris for the event.