Safe in Southport

I just wanted to let you know we left Dockside at 03:00 this morning, after enjoying two and a half weeks of Brisbane hospitality, sight-seeing, shopping, relaxation.....and even getting in some re-provisioning and small repairs too.

As we slipped quietly down the river I was reciting passages of one of the kid's books to myself. It is called the Night Pirates, by Peter Harris and illustrated by Deborah Allwright...

"Down, down, down the dark, dark street they came. Up, up, up the dark, dark house they climbed. Stealthy as shadows, quiet as mice. Only the moon was watching when they arrived. Only the moon was watching when they left. Only the moon & one little boy."

I'm not convinced anyone was watching, and it was overcast so I've got no idea if the moon was up or not, but it did feel very stealthy navigating down the river in the middle of the night...very nice not to worry about the City Cats zig-zagging across our path too!

We made it safely down to Southport by lunch-time today, and will hang out here until the wind turns to the east on Sunday (if the forecast is to be believed). I'll pop up a few details of our trip down through the channels soon. I'm so tired now I don't think I'll make sense.

Merry Christmas...

I was just sorting through photos this afternoon, and thinking about my favourite stops on this trip. I thought I'd pop a few up here while I was at it...in no particular order. Today's shot, Lady Musgrave Island...sigh! Definitely near the very top of the favourite stops list. :-)

Christmas Click n' Sniff

Thought I'd pop up a wee snap of our beautiful Lucey Blue Christmas tree. We have the full Christmas thing going on here...tree, decorations, lights, candles etc, and I love it. I've even been ramping up the iPod Christmas playlist most evenings. Nothing like a bit of Bing, Diana Krall, Michael Bublé and Kylie to add a festive touch to our evenings.

Wish it was a click n' sniff pic...because those candles have a heavenly peppermint scent that really make the whole boat smell, well....Christmassy! You'll have to use your imagination instead. What you can't see in the picture is all the blue tack holding the Christmas tree in place. It is only a light, wooden frame, and when the City Cats go racing past here they create considerable wake which results in us lurching about like one of those automated bull rides you see in the US. The whole tree took a dive off the table about 10 minutes after I'd put it together last week, but thankfully nothing broke...so now it is anchored in place with about half a pack of blue tack. Problem solved!

This next pic is NOT a click n' sniff candidate...

Our budding Palaeontologists really enjoyed inspecting this Fish Fossil, an awesome piece of riverside art by Christopher Trotter. They were intrigued about what parts had been used to make him. You may be pleased to know he looks most un-Mackerel-like, so we had no desire to eat him.

Still watching the weather here, and speculating about taking the channel route down to the Gold Coast some time this week. Hope that comes off...it is supposed to be a very nice trip.

Wibbly Wobbly LIghts

Extra points if you can tell where this wibbly wobbly pic was taken! Actually, take that back, I probably had the GPS on the camera on at the time, so it's most likely buried in the metadata somewhere anyway! It was taken from Lucey Blue, while anchored in The Pond, Mooloolaba. I like wibbly lights.

I also like itty bitty coloured dots...so do the kids...

This pic taken in Yayoi Kusama's The obliteration room 2002, one of the children's exhibits at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) here in Brissy. Fun for the whole family...I enjoyed making little patterns with my dots.

Some Brissy curb-side art...is anyone else having Addams Family flashbacks? I was waiting for it to start scuttling towards me!

Have a great weekend.