Hasty trip around country with brother
IF THINGS have gone to plan then I am back home in Toowoomba as you read this. If they haven’t then I might be anywhere. I will hopefully be able to tell you what went wrong in a future column!
My wife and I, with visiting brother John and his wife, have been on a hasty trip around a fair bit of this magnificent country.
We began with a night at the Royal on the Park Hotel in Brizzie before taking a flight to Alice Springs on Sunday 18th. We had a night in a pub there prior to catching the Ghan from Alice Springs to Darwin. The Ghan is a magnificent train. I admit that we treated ourselves to the best of the best, travelling posh class with all the food and drink provided and very comfortable private cabins. Well, why not ..... once in a blue moon.
Apart from a couple of very enjoyable hours spent in Katherine, the very beauty of the journey, if you like trains, is the sheer tedium of sitting looking at very little.
You meet all kinds of fellow travellers and just enjoy the ride. The trip takes about 26 hours including the night-time part when you can’t see much anyway.
We eventually arrived in Darwin during the evening of February 20 and had three nights taking in the sights of that under-rated city. I’ve been to Darwin before and I think it is a surprisingly interesting place. Mind you, it can be fairly warm at this time of year and not a bit like Yateley.
Yateley is where my rellies have lived for almost all their married life. It is a nice town in Hampshire, west of London, and gives easy access to London. My rellies have lived there for more than 50 years and obviously know the area well.
I once asked my brother whether he had any desire to move houses. His response was very understandable
‘‘ I ONCE ASKED MY BROTHER WHETHER HE HAD ANY DESIRE TO MOVE HOUSES. HIS RESPONSE WAS VERY UNDERSTANDABLE (AND VERY SUBURBAN POMMY).
(AND very suburban Pommy). “Why would I think about moving”, he asked, “I can’t afford to buy a better house .... and, besides which, I like the one we live in .... ”
That’s a bit sad, slightly boring and yet very understandable. If I had lived in Yateley for more than 50 years I would probably have a similar attitude.
Maybe where you live is much less important than how you live. Acceptance of a way of life is probably a key to living happily. Anyway, it maximises the time available for soccer and cricket coaching ........
After our Darwin stay we flew to Cairns and had two nights in a good hotel, sampling the excellent local food and trying to keep cool. I like Cairns and that part of North Queensland, providing one can afford to stay in a good hotel and enjoy the beaches. We then flew to Brisbane, picked up our car and had two nights showing off the city to our visitors.
We lived in Brisbane from 1971 through to 1990 before we came to Toowoomba. I love Brisbane. Can be too bloody hot and humid for some of the year but the rest of the year makes up for it.
I wrote last week about seeing a “Prepare to Meet Thy Doom” sign on our first morning in Brisbane in 1971. That was easy!
Our visitors now have a few more days in Toowoomba before bracing themselves for their Yateley return and the back end of an English winter.
February, in that part of the world, is an excellent month to be elsewhere. Weather is unpredictable but the chances of fog and frost are high. There is still a long time before it is warm enough to watch cricket or stand in shirtsleeves watching the footie.
Give me the humidity any time!