Friday drive

My sister Mavis and I drove up to Brisbane yesterday to fetch our jet-setting niece, Surfergirl, who's back in Australia for a few weeks. Specifically, Mavis drove. I just sat there eating marshmallows, Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate, and some sort of jelly jungle animals, and taking photos out the window, including this self-portrait:**


The photos are up at Flickr in the Road to Brisbane set. I was a bit slow to get going, so the first ones were taken at Springvale Hill, which is between Clunes and Bangalow, then we continued up the Pacific Highway/Motorway and ended up in the streets of Brisbane.

And I missed taking any photos of Brisbane River, perhaps the most scenic and beautiful part of the city... Damn. It only struck me this morning that we Australians should be grateful for our seafaring/water transport beginnings. Many or most early towns were established on rivers (the highways of the time), so our cities had a headstart in being beautiful, relaxed places. Things might have been different if we'd all relied on llamas, say, or if motor vehicles or trains had been introduced earlier.

Talking about cultural differences, when Surfergirl left her island home the other day, the plane was delayed for a few hours. This is not unusual, and it's also not unusual for passengers to book in and then go home to wait for the plane to be ready to go. This is what happened the other night, but the problem was, when finally the plane was ready to go, an important passenger hadn't returned. She'd gone home and fallen asleep. And so the plane, and the passengers, and all the people farewelling the passengers, sat there and they waited. And they waited. And then the sleepy passenger woke up, got to the airport, the plane took off, and all was well.

Now, isn't that civil? (^_^) No doubt it'd be completely maddening for anybody trying to keep the airline to schedule, but still... I think it's cute and lovely. Go the islanders.

**Picture found here and then fiddled with.