Fete fun just what the doctor should order

Why couldn’t life be like a fete eh?

Perhaps it was meant to be, and we in our infinite wisdom came along and stuffed it up.

But luckily, we have many great fetes like Cranbrook, where we can see how to have wonderful, simple fun once more, and forget about things that sometimes shouldn’t really matter.

At fetes you arrive to lights, colour and laughter, plenty of entertainment, no one cares if you have a few dollars or not, whether you wear tropical clothes that don’t match, where you’re from, what language you speak, if you’re sad as you won’t be for long, if you’ve had a blue with your wife, hubby, partner, politician or dog, because you’ll make up.

Isn’t that what ‘ life’ should be? I reckon doctors should prescribe fetes as a life problem fixerupper!

This was a celebration of the tropics, I met many friends who I know are battlers, and there they were with the kids having a ball, and in that case alone, forgetting about the money made for the school, all the hard work was worth it. Thank you Cranbrook! The kids made us so welcome too, especially a bunch of first Australian kids who were laughing around me and took us to the library to meet the wonderful librarian and see the cultural paintings up for auction.

Then the cent sale, my Barb loves them, because she certainly never gets any sense out of me, the plant stall where I left with near a wheelbarrow full for $ 20, fair dinkum, and I’ve never used a wheelbarrow!

Great games, like Whine or Wine where you buy a bottle all wrapped up for $ 2 and you get a shocker of a wine or a good one.

We bought a few, one was worth $ 30, and we never win.

Having said that we won by just being there. Then the throwing of toilet rolls in a loo, tennis balls in tiny buckets ( I was hopeless) and so many more games, the handmade Christmas decorations were the best, kids dancing, great food, and most important, happy people.

I wanted to tell you this, as we all sometimes forget how wonderful, how necessary in life these glorious gatherings are. Not only fetes, but the very next day it was the Ingham Maraka Festival, and this was brilliant too.

Thanks to all the Maraka board and volunteers for putting together a terrific party for the Hinchinbrook Shire, and they deserve it.

If you remember, over the years this wonderful community has copped a hiding from Mother Nature and the economy, and I reckon the best word to describe them all, is resilient.

We stayed into the night having a few cups of tea with my local mates ( true, well I think it was tea) watched the fantastic fireworks and drove home, what a great weekend.

And this weekend’s looking a ripper too with Cyclone Sunday. It’s so incredibly unique, you get to meet all the emergency services in a fun atmosphere, lots to give away, and you learn about our whirly winds born in the mighty Coral Sea. Love this place called home. Happy days.