We Know When We're Beaten

If you've been following my 'From Thun to Brisbane' blog, you may remember that I came to Australia with my friend Ben a long time ago. Well, like me, Ben is still in Australia living with his wife Lyn on the Gold Coast. The four of us have been friends for a long time. When our children were very little, Ben and I taught Diane and Lyn how to play the Swiss national card game 'Jass'. So every couple of months we get together either at our place in Daisy Hill, or their place at Labrador. We play cards, always the girls against the boys. Now I don't want to boast, but ususally the boys win. Not so this weekend. This time the girls (both Australian) beat the boys (both Swiss) at our own game 6 games to 2. As I said, I know when we're beaten.

Hearts is trump and holds 50 points with the Stöck

If you would like more information on how to play 'Jass' - CLICK HERE

A Walk in Brisbane

Easter 2011, Diane and I took a walk from South Bank into Brisbane City Botanic Garden for a Sunday stroll and a picnic. It didn't rain and we had a great time. Here's a little video:

Two lovely people

Daughter Sonya sent us this lovely picture of our eleven months old grandson Fox standing in their kitchen in Hollywood. The picture was taken by his daddy Bernie on a camera phone.

Sonya with our grandson Fox in Hollywood

Our Morning Walk

We can't do it every morning, but we do as often as we can, that is walking in the Daisy Hill Forest before breakfast. To try my new Canon Legria camera, I shot some pictures this morning.

The entrance sign to the Daisy Hill State Forest

We drive up to the park, which is about a kilometre away from our house. Diane still walks home while I go and buy the newspaper.

The Circle Road inside the park

The park has a circle road with seven parking lots scattered all around the circle. On weekends it is very busy with families utilising the various barbecues provided free of charge by the state government. On weekday mornings lots of people come up here for a walk, like us.

The Daisy Hill Koala Centre

We walk past the Daisy Hill Koala Centre, which is run by the Natural Resources Department of the state government. That's where they look after injured or orphaned Koalas. It is open to the public as the sign says between 10am and 4pm.

Wallabies are grazing in the park

There are usually a few wallabies grazing in the park. They are not too scared of people, although they will hop away if you get too close.

'Don't come any closer, do you hear?

During the drought a couple of years ago, they did come up to people looking for food, but since the rain, there is plenty of natural food for them so they don't need to beg for food any more.

These two are near one of the barbecue tables

We keep on walking through the beautiful park.

There are lots of big gum trees in the park

Of course the park is now lush and green. A couple of years ago the ground was all brown and burnt looking. Even the great gum trees look much healthier these days.

A couple of close-ups to finish this post

Diane's Garden

I have a new HD video camera. To try it out, I shot some footage in our garden, well, Diane's garden to be precise. 

Press anywhere on the picture to start movie

About the camera:
I have always had Sony video cameras in the past (still got 2) but all of them had to be repaired at one stage or another, which is always a hassle and costs money, so I did a lot of research and have found that Canon technology has now surpassed Sony both in colour and performance so this time I have bought a Canon top of the range camcorder. See how I like it. So far so good.

Diane receives a great complement

As we are travelling to the US in June, I decided I need a new video camera, a HD (high definition) model as I have been filming in standard format in the past. So today we jumped in the car and trundled off to Photo Continental at Mount Gravatt, one of the leading equipment retailers. There we asked to see Andrew, the manager who is married to a former teaching colleague of Diane's. He sold Diane her Canon EOS camera last year. 


While he was talking to us, he mentioned that together with Sharon, his wife, they had been looking at Diane's blog recently. He said to her, 'Diane, I am very impressed with your photography, some of the pictures on your blog are amongst the best I have seen, and believe me, in this job, I see a lot of pictures every day'.


For once, Diane was speechless. Unfortunately I didn't have my video camera with me to film that.


I personally think he is right, here is one of her photos from Canada:

Early morning in the fog by Diane Bohlen

The Cats are Back

Great News, The City Cats are back


Most of Brisbane's CityCat and CityFerry services have resumed yesterday morning following last month's devastating floods.

Fifteen of the city's 23 ferry terminals are back online, after many suffered major damage and some were washed away during flooding on January 13.

The Brisbane river services employ about 180 operating staff.

The first upstream CityCat service departed from Apollo Road at 5.25am yesterday, while the first downstream service left the Guyatt Park terminal at St Lucia at 5.40am.

Services are expected to run every 12 to 13 minutes for most of the day.

The beloved City Cats are sailing up the Brisbane River

People are very happy to see the Cats back in service

Quite a sight, the flotilla of City Cats returning

The Cats in single file

Pictures taken from Brisbane Times - Read More