Tapp's Travels

Our apartment gets visits from parakeets from time to time…

We also have frequent fly-pasts at eye-level by ospreys (harder to photograph without Anne and her telephoto lens) …

Except one just drifted past about 5 metres out.  Never have the camera (or Anne) when you need it!!!  ?

And another was perched on a channel marker buoy as we walked past this morning ????…

We’ve also had one sighting from the deck of a white-bellied sea-eagle.  This massive raptor belongs to the same genus as the white-tailed sea-eagles we watched fishing off the Lofoten Islands in January last year.  I wonder what the local birds would make of the 70 degrees Celsius reduction in temperature if they moved North by mistake!

We had a rather too close fly-past by a drone.  I’m sure that there should be rules about how close these things can fly to buildings without specific permissions.  Still, I smile to think what the pilot will make of his video.  Call me Captain Underpants again!  Lucky for him that he didn’t pass our balcony five minutes earlier!

While on the subject of flying animals we see a lot of fruit bats.  Noisy, smelly colonies of these creatures occur all over the place – but fortunately not close to our apartment.

We’ve had some great trips out in the country in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland.  From the Ridge Road between Montville and Malaney there are panoramic views back over to the coast.  The ridge is used by model plane flyers and paragliders alike.

Jack’s school had a “romp in the forest” morning the other day.  Parents, siblings and grandparents invited.  We got all geared up.  Loaded the rucksack with water and supplies.  Borrowed a satellite phone, a tent and all-weather gear and got extensively sprayed with bug-repellent – not knowing how far into the forest we would be “romping”!  It was a really good event with about ten activity stations neatly spaced around the school grounds.  The school does admittedly have some trees – but calling it a forest might be stretching things a bit.

The favourite was the “Marble Run”.  Lots of tubes, boxes, gutters, funnels and sticky tape.  The “marbles” were in fact ping pong balls.  The plan was to construct a run over the greatest distance possible using the greatest number of different items.

Move over kids – let the grown-ups sort this out!

There was also a police car on display.  I’ve never seen so many children in one car – and when they found the siren switch it was a VERY noisy car!

Handcuffs were another favourite!

He’s got Jack but Ben’s doing a runner in the background!  All very exciting – those two activities plus some clay modelling took up all the time.  We never got to see the other six or seven educational, recycling-orientated attractions!

We had a really restful pot of tea at Spicers Clovelly near Montville and, on another occasion, at the Glasshouse Lookout Cafe.

With, as would be expected, a great view of the Glasshouse Mountains…

At the actual lookout, the view was panoramic…

We have always been a bit uncertain why Captain Cook called these volcanic plugs the “Glasshouse Mountains”.  Allegedly he thought they looked like the “glasshouses” of his native Yorkshire.  But these would have been the glass producing factories not the sort in which you would grow tomatoes.  And he was a long way away at the time, sitting offshore as he was!  Having done some research, I can see what he was talking about.  This is a picture of a “Glass Cone” found at Alloa …

Although it is true to say that Alloa is squarely located in Scotland not Yorkshire!  This structure looks as if it would have dated from about James’ time.  (In fact it was built about 45 years after his death – but close!)

On Saturday, Jack had his first soccer match for his school team.   They came second, but they did score one memorable goal!  And the oranges were juicy!

I don’t know how they can run around in full sunshine for more than ten minutes.  Still, Phroggy found a cool seat on the iced water bottle!

On Sunday we all went about 70 kms South to Bribie Island.  A good safe swimming beach – with fish and chips!  Plus gym kit.

And we had a visit from a Harlequin Beetle which crawled all over Jack…

I’ve tried to identify this fellow – but there’s a problem.  Apparently over one-quarter of all known species of animals are beetles. There are over 350,000 different known beetle species worldwide and new species are being discovered all the time.  Of the 30,000 species that may occur in Australia, only 20,000 are scientifically described.  I’m going to name this one Jack’s Harlequin Beetle – so that makes 20,001.

We get to see some great sunrises …

… and sunsets from the balcony …

… on the rare occasions we aren’t with the grandchildren.  Maybe that’s a good place to end this episode…

DIVINE RETRIBUTION

A sailor and a priest are out golfing.  The sailor takes his first swing and slices it hard to the left of the green.  “DAMN IT! I missed!” exclaimed the sailor as his ball rolls into a bunker.

“My son!  Please refrain from using that type of language, The Lord can hear you!” gasps the priest.  The sailor apologises and they proceed with their game.

The sailor takes a whack at his ball from the bunker.  He has a great shot, landing the ball right on the green.  Still it’s not good enough for him, so yet again he mutters “DAMN IT, I missed again!”

The priest bursts out, yelling “my son!  The Lord will strike you down should you continue in your sinful ways!  You will be punished for your sins!”  The sailor apologises profusely and lines up his putt.  The putt heads straight for the hole… and then runs around the rim and stays out.  “DAMN IT! I MISSED!” the sailor exclaims, louder than before.

Out of nowhere, a lightning bolt shoots from the sky.  It streaks down from the clouds and hits the priest, instantly killing him.

A deep, booming voice from the heavens speaks… 

“DAMN IT!  I MISSED!”