Just sitting outside this morning looking at the river and having a nice cup of green tea. I woke up at 5am. I wish I was joking. Everyday I seem to wake up earlier and earlier. Maybe I need more exercise? Hmm, not sure I'm desperate enough for that yet.
Tonight about 38 people either from Bechtel or other expats are gathering here in our function room for a potluck dinner. A little over a year ago, this started with about 6 women getting together once a week for coffee....lately, we've had 16 or more for coffee on Wednesdays! Close friendships are being formed and various groups of people are getting together for fun. What a lifeline they've become for me. They help Brisbane feel like "home".
One of those women, Mairi, has been especially helpful lately. The owners of our
apartment want to move back in so we've been asked to vacate at the end of lease. Of course, this sent me into a complete tailspin (because that's how I work) and Mairi has held my hand throughout the whole thing.....listening to my rantings, going to see apartments and basically reminding me that everything really will be fine. A special thanks goes out to the group of gals
sitting near me at coffee this week, too, because I was in fine form ranting like a madwoman about diplomatic clauses and the cost of rents and more. I'm lucky they didn't get together and try to medicate me. Mairi also spoke to her building manager and found out about an apartment that was coming available soon and we were able to jump on it before someone else could! It's quite perfect for us. Not so big that I'll hate cleaning it but big enough for a family that includes two teenagers. And it has my beloved river view. We'll be on the 29th floor. I can't get the "Jeffersons" theme song out of my head. I can't imagine living that high up but I guess I'm about to find out what it's like! We'll be moving in May and I'll post photos as soon as I can.
Last weekend we went to a Granite Belt Wine Tasting at South Bank with Mairi and Jimmy. Well, if that wasn't a perfect day, I don't know what would be. Beautiful warm sunshine, good company,
lovely wines....and even with the flood damage, South Bank is still gorgeous.
Also, last weekend was the St. Patrick's Day Parade. I was expecting something really big so made
us get there early. People didn't really start showing up until about 10 minutes before we started. When I was a kid we used to have to arrive really early
to get a spot for the Christmas Parade in Bristol, TN!!!! Or so it seemed. Maybe it just seemed like a really long time to sit there waiting for it to start because I was little kid. Anyway, no big deal, because we ran into Ralph and MC right away and got to chat with them. Just before the parade started Mairi and Jimmy joined us. I don't know that I've ever seen that many kilts in one place in my whole life. Afterwards, Jimmy, Mairi, Ben and I went to the casino for lunch and being the big spenders that we are, we played $20 on roulette and I'm happy to say Ben and I broke even. 