Then and Now

I am continuing processing old slides and photographs and came across this lot taken in 1971 when we built our first home. We had recently returned from a trip around the world, after leaving Papua New Guinea. It was time to settle down. Before we left for Europe had bought an acre (half ha) of land in what was then called Eight Mile Plains and is now called Springwood. We looked around for a house we liked and settled on a 'Beazley' boomerang shaped 3-Bedroom house.

 The day arrived when we met the builder with the bulldozer to level the land and dig the foundations.

The builder arrives with the bullzozer 

I'm supervising the action

The land had a gentle slope

A few days later, we had the foundations in and shortly after the slab. Builders in those days were very efficient and prompt. The Blogger plans the garden. An acre is an awful lot of land

The foundations are in

The timber frame goes up

 Once the frame was up, I pulled all the wires into the ceiling and frames for the lighting and power points. I was an electrician then.

The roof is on

We visited the site most weekends to check it out and sometimes order changes to be made. The builder was very tolerant with us and didn't complain when we asked for things to be moved or improved. Mind you, he charged us for it. Fair enough.

Outside looks a real mess

Finally, after five months, we took possession of the house and moved in.

Our very first house

The funny thing was, our address was Lot 14, Springwood Road, Eight Mile Plains, which a few years later became Lot 14, Springwood Road, Slacks Creek and yet another few years later, 222, Springwood Road, Springwood. So we changed addresses three times without even moving.

The kitchen is finished

Springwood has changed drastically in 43 years, as the picture below shows. What once was a single lane road where passing vehicles had to drive onto the dirt road next to the bitumen, is now a 4-lane road.

This is the road now

Our first daughter Carol was born there. It was a building boom, so we only stayed for a couple of years there before we sold the place for more than twice as much and bought another house, still in Springwood. But that's another story.

A truly remarkable Outing

This morning, we jumped on a bus into town with the U3A Camera Club. Destination the Gallery of Modern Art at South Bank. Now, I might be ever so slightly biased, but I am certain that GOMA at Brisbane ranks amongst the top modern art galleries in the English Speaking World. My well travelled, very arty daughter agrees with me.

Presently, there is one of the most dramatic exhibitions held at GOMA, ‘Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth’ presents major new works by a truly global artist, whose large-scale installations and explosion events have made him one of the most innovative figures in contemporary art. Over the past 25 years, Cai Guo Qiang has held solo exhibitions at some of the world’s most prestigious art institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York. Following recent exhibitions in Qatar, Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Rio de Janeiro and Venice, QAGOMA presents ‘Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth’ — the artist’s first solo exhibition in Australia and a GOMA exclusive.

Members of the club mingled with the public to capture the exhibits

‘Falling Back to Earth’, presented by Tourism and Events Queensland and Santos GLNG Project, features four installations, including two newly commissioned works directly inspired by the landscapes of southeast Queensland, which the artist visited in 2011. The centerpiece of the exhibition — Heritage 2013 — features 99 replicas of animals from around the world, gathered together to drink from a blue lake surrounded by pristine white sand, reminiscent of the lakes of Moreton Bay’s islands.
 

Animals gather around the lake to drink

At first, it looked to me as if the lake was a coloured plastic sheet, but one of the staff members assured me it is real water. It looks amazing. There is a boardwalk all around the lake for the visitors and sand to the edge of the lake. Visitors are not allowed onto the pristine white sand.

The other major installation, — Head On 2006 — is a striking installation of 99 artificial wolves leaping en masse into a glass wall, on display in Australia for the first time.

Both spectacular and meditative, and presenting a beautiful, thought-provoking vision of our relationship with the earth and with each other, ‘Falling Back to Earth’ is a must-see exhibition. Here, visitors can walk amongst the animals up close, which made perfect subjects for close-up photography.

If this exhibit ever visits your city, I strongly recommend you go and see it.

Book Sale

Libraries always have too many books or books they replace after a certain time. Our libraries in Logan City have a community book store where these book are sold to the public. The store is run by community groups and all moneys stay with the groups.

Well, today it was U3A's turn to run the store and it fell on me to organise it. Publicise it on posters around the area and all the local radio stations.

The Bookshop at the Library

Logan Central Library

Besides Books, we sold DVDs and Audio Books

The Bookshop has a wide variety of books and subjects

We had a roster of volunteers looking after the shop from various groups of U3A. We took it in turns looking after the till and serving customers, many of whom are regulars and come every Saturday morning to stock up on books.

Frances and Michael, a couple of U3A Volunteers

 We had a steady trickle of customers coming in the shop between 9 AM and 2 PM. The shop is open every Saturday and is restocked every week before it is open for another community group. We think the Logan City Council is to be congratulated for providing this fabulous service for community groups to derive an income and for the public to stock up on inexpensive books.

Customers spend a lot of time browsing

We made a decent sum of money and plan to do it again in September.

Power

We have a high voltage / domestic voltage transformer mounted on a power pole between ours and the neighbour's property not a pretty sight to start with, but we're sort of used to it. We also have lots of possums living in the area and they use the high tension wires as their highway at night. They climb over the transformer and short out two phases and their lives. So every so often we hear a terrible bang outside and the lights go out in the street. This has happened three times in the last six months. Usually while I am watching telly or sit at the computer. Well it happened again on Friday night about a qarter into the Dr Blake mystery on the ABC. Most neighbours in these cases, congregate in the street commiserating. After a couple of hours in the darkness, the emergency crew arrived and changed the blown high voltage fuse at the transformer. Saturday (yesterday) I sent an email off to the supply authority requesting them to do something about this transformer as we're all thoroughly sick of losing power so often. Well, what a surprise when this morning (Sunday) another crew arrived with a huge cherry picker and they removed the dead possum on top of the transformer and double insulated the high voltage terminals.

Energex arrived this morning

They cover the terminals while they're working on them

Above their heads are the high voltage fuses the possums trip

Before

After

Back to Normal

So now we wait and see what happens.

Dylan Winter and the Starling Murmurations

This is an amazing sight. I just had to share it with you....

U3A Meet The Tutors Day

In February, we attended the Meet the Tutors Day of the University of the Third Age. The Logan City Mayor, Pam Parker was there as well to meet us all. It made the local rag

The Albert and Logan News

Oh, I see

I've had my left cataract operated on yesterday, The op itself was ok, but the waiting....

We rocked up at a quarter to one on an empty stomach as requested. Sat down and went through the admission procedure with the receptionist at the Eye Clinic. Then she got us to sit down in a full waiting room. Lots of elderly couples, just like us. An hour later a nurse called my name and took me into her office, where again, we went through all the details of what's going to happen and my full medical history, all while dropping eyedrops in my eye every few minutes, that took about 15 minutes, then she put on a blue gown (on me, not her) and placed me in another waiting room full of other people in gowns. She told me to wait until someone would call me through either of the two doors leading somewhere else. There were lots of magazines but nobody was reading them. Just like me, they couldn't see. Another hour later, one of the doors opened and another nurse called my name. It was yet another office and sitting down, the anaesthetists' nurse went through the same questions the other nurse and receptionist went through. I guess they want to make sure your correct eye is done and not your left kneecap.

Then the anaesthetist came and spoke to me and explained that normally they give the patient an injection into the eye as a local anaesthetic but due to a particular drug I take, they couldn't do that as there is a risk of bleeding behind the eye, which could result in blindness. Instead, they would put me on a drip with something to make me drowsy and then anaesthetic drops in the eye. He told me that because of that, I would probably feel the procedure. Great!! I love pain (not).

Another 15 minutes later, I was eventually taken to the operating theatre and placed on a bed. The medical staff then carried out their duties of preparing me. The anaesthetist inserted a canulla and told me, 'I'm going to give you something to make you relaxed.'

A minute later, a nurse said, 'Mr. Bohlen, can you sit up, and follow me.' I asked, 'where are they going to do the operation?' 'Oh, that's all over', she said. Apparently I slept through the whole procedure. I never felt a thing. She took me to a third waiting room, presented me with a plate of sandwiches and a cup of coffee and that was it.

This morning I had an early appointment with the eye surgeon in his rooms at Springwood and he explained exactly what they did. If you want to know what is involved, CLICK HERE

In the waiting room this morning

The eye surgeon removed the bandage, checked the result and after declaring the operation a success, sent me on my way. Now it's suddenly as if someone had turned on the lights or increased the brightness slider on my brain. It's wonderful.