Today, I finally got up the guts to contact my brother, Kevin, via Facebook. Thought that I may as well, not sure when I will be back this way again. I would like to think that it will go well, but I am trying not to get my hopes up too high. I haven’t spoken to my family for about 11 years, so it has been a while. If nothing else, it reminds them that I still exist & am happy to talk to them, whenever they are.
My Great Uncle & Aunt arrived today. What makes someone your great uncle or aunt, they have to be a brother or sister (or brother or sister inlaw) of your grandfather or grandmother. In this case, Keith is my grandfathers brother.
I heard from Keith in December, he called us from the UK to say that he would be over in Australia by the end of December (leaving the UK on Boxing day) & going back at the end of January. Keith has a cousin, Tina, who lives in Sydney with her husband, Richard, & they had a feeling that they weren’t doing very well healthwise, but they couldn’t get much out of them over the phone etc, so they thought that the best thing would be to come over & see for themselves how they are going & whilst they were over here, they thought that they might rent a car & drive up to QLD, no further than Bundaberg, popping into see us on the way.
How exciting, it wasn’t until a week or so ago, that I found out when Keith & Glenda would be coming. They hoped to arrive on either today, Thursday, or Friday at the latest. They of course arrived today, at 1.45. I was at home all day, as I didn’t have any work on, which was good. We chatted for ages, I think that I was somewhat mesmerised, I had relatives that came to visit US, they actually came out of their way to see US, this was a first for me, ok we have had Geoff’s parents come over & his brother too, but this was MY FAMILY, how cool.
When Geoff arrived home we chatted for a short time, before going across the road for dinner at the Japanese place “Cheers”, it was the first time that Glenda & Keith had, had Japanese & they seemed to enjoy it. I had a great Sushi cake (my favourite, although they had to make it 3 times, because they stuffed it up the first 2 and put stuff in it that I was allergic to, but at least they worked that out before I ate it). After dinner we wandered down to the beach to have a look, then off to bed. I wish that I wasn’t working tomorrow, but you get that, gotta earn some cash.
Wow, Woodford & X-mas are creeping up fast, it’s next weekend - holy shit! I had at least started some of my x-mas celebrations preparation before I managed to get 2nd degree burns, but being out of action for the last couple of weeks after it happened has certainly put me behind - I wish that I had done more before it happened. We aren’t even sure if Geoff’s dad is still coming up for x-mas day or not - which to be honest is kinda stressing me out. David has a dog, Benny (fox terrier) who needs to be looked after whilst he is away & he doesn’t really want to ask his neighbours, so he might only come for a day or two. If he does come, I will only see him for a day or so, as I am headed up to the Sunshine Coast on Boxing day so that I am ready for interpreting on Monday, when it officially starts.
I have decided that I won’t be camping at Woodford this year for a couple of reasons 1/ everyone who is going and camping with the dancing hands group, will be bringing hay bales (which I am allergic to) 2/ my burns need to be kept clean & I don’t think that camping there is going to be all that good for me in that respect. So instead I will be staying with Heather & Maree on their farm/ property (although with them now having goats it probably is becoming a bit more of a farm). Maree said that it will probably be good for me too, as I can have some time to myself to really relax, which is a fair point, so I can be either working or not, not in the middle most of the time like I was last year. Plus I can probably eat a little better as well. I think that I will miss being fully immersed in Deaf culture for the week, but my burns are really important to get them healed. I need to stop injuring myself!!
In other news, we setup our x-mas tree - FINALLY tonight - holy crap, I thought that it would never happen - it was pretty quick to setup - it kinds felt like the express x-mas tree setup, taking us about 10 min to do everything but, at least it’s setup. Hard to believe that there’s only 10 days left til x-mas.
WOW, what a surprise, my family is in Canada at the moment. A friend of ours, Daniel, sent a photo - wow, everyone is a little older & my little brother, Gordon has grown, although he still looks very similar to me. Kevin is pretty much the same & my parents are a little older - they look like grandparents.
I just can’t believe how much Gordon has changed - I can see him bringing in the chicks - he’s 25 now. Just absolutely amazed. Seeing them all together confirms that they are all still a part of the religion, so I guess that there is buckley’s chance that any of them would reply to anything that I send. It is good to know that they all seem to be doing ok & look fairly happy though.
I found at least one of my brothers on facebook, Kevin - how cool 
He’s locked down his profile, so I can’t really see anything about him - feeling a little ripped off, so close, yet so far …….
I may have found my other brother, Gordon, but he doesn’t have a photo for his profile, but it’s locked down just like Kevin’s.
I am kinda excited to have found at least one of my brothers for sure, but at the same time I am feeling just a little ripped - I would love to chat to them, but the rejection & no doubt blocking of my account by them holds more fear. I have contacted my mum/ mom & she rejected me, so what are the odds that they won’t - very pessimistic when it comes to family, sorry but I am, or maybe I am just realistic…..
Hope that you have a great B’day today Helga!
Wow! What a surprise I had today. I found a family photo of my family taken in 1999. This is the last photo taken of all of us.
My dad didn’t like his photo taken because of his weight, so it took a lot of convincing for this photo to actually be taken, thus his placement at the back. Due to the fact that my dad wasn’t very happy with his weight, we hadn’t had a family photo taken for at least 10 years prior to this one.
I actually thought that I had lost this photo, so I was quite shocked to find it today. I look like a bit of a dick (was trying to laugh at the time) but at least it is a family photo, nice to have a photo of my family. A very nice surprise indeed!
As I mentioned in a previous post we have some new lenses. Monday last week (5th January) Geoff and I went up to Springbrook with Steve & Etsuko. We stopped to take a look at some land, nice block with a creek running through it and everything but it was right next to the shops, so it seemed to defeat the idea getting away from things. We have been thinking of buying something to save some money on renting, but not sure if we are ready to buy property here yet. Means that you are tied down to some extent.
Anyhow, after checking out the land we all went to Springbrook National Park, (Purlingbrook Falls lookout) to have a gander and play with the lenses. I had a play with the 100mm prime lense. My favourite type of photography is macro, being able to capture the tiniest detail that would otherwise go unnoticed, it’s quite an art. I did snap off a shot of an ant walking across a leaf, but the little blighter was moving, so it’s a little blurry. I quite liked the gum nuts, as pictured.
I quite liked this photo that Geoff snapped of Steve (his brother) and I. Steve had just shown me a photo on his camera taken earlier in the day which looked like he was tugging off, due to the angle, I wish I had a copy of the photo to show you - it was a classic. I do suspect that photo was deleted later on that day when we were in need of some more space on the memory cards to take more photo’s. It’s still quite a nice photo none the less. Just realised that we didn’t get any photo’s of Geoff and I at the top of the falls, might have to send an e-mail to Steve to see about getting copies, coz we forgot to grab them whilst he was here - DOH! Steve went back to Japan with Etsuko at 5:30am Saturday (10th January) morning.
The joys of interpreting, my job for the day has been cancelled. I got a message late last night to let me know that it was cancelled & luckily I checked my messages this morning before I headed off. Bummer that I didn’t get the message sooner, then I could have changed my alarm. I must admit that I was pretty damn unimpressed when my alarm went off at 5:15am. I am actually happy that I don’t have to rush off to go interpreting early this morning, means I can relax a little more, take it easy, at least a little more than I would have if I was still interpreting.
Today is the first day (of two) for Sunset Sounds which should be really good. I get to see Tegan and Sara play, which will be awesome. We missed them the last time they came to Oz, which was a bit of a shame. Anyhow, I get to make up for it today - wohoo!!
Steve and Geoff are talking about camera bits, we are getting 3 lenses off of him. Man, the topic changed quickly, now David wants to play a game of chess. Whoa it’s all too hard to follow, I am off to have some fruit for breakfast, yum!
Just a random heading, really.
Today Geoff’s dad, David, arrived to say hello to everyone. David lives in Deepwater NSW, about 5 hours from here. He is only staying one night, because Geoff and I are off to see Sunset Sounds over the next couple of days and Steve and Etsuko (proper spelling this time) are going sea kayaking in our boat over the next 2 days or so. Bit of a shame that the visit is so short, but hey, it’s nice that David could come up. To be honest it’s probably the only way that he would get to see Steve, which is a bit of a shame, but that’s just the way it is I guess.
I went to work this morning, so by the time that I got home David had already arrived. We all had a bit of a chat and then went down to the beach. David and Geoff had a bit of a swim/ body surf, whilst Etsuko went off for a wander and Steve took off to take some photo’s, leaving me to mind the gear (which was frankly a little boring). I did have a bit of a play with my camera, taking some photo’s of a flower that I had picked up on the way down to the beach. I quite liked the photo’s actually. I reckon that a few frangipani on the sand would be awesome - oh well, next time eh?
For dinner we went down to Burleigh and got some fish and chips from our favourite fish ‘n’ chips place, Fishmongers, they are really good with cooking stuff for me with my allergies. If we are going to take anyone to get fish ‘n’ chips, that’s the place to go. They were pretty busy tonight, so we had a 50 minute wait for our food, after ordering, which was a little unusual. We killed some time by wandering down to the beach and having a chat, taking a few photos’ of the 4 of us. I have included one of the photo’s although it’s not a great shot (some of us look goofier than others), it is a photo of the 4 of us.