This was part of our dinner last night at the unit on Nobby Beach – a feast of Australian BBQ (but no shrimp on the barbie that night…).
Monthly Archives: January 2009
“Best of All”
We drove up into Springbrook National Park yesterday and headed straight for Jem’s favorite lookout, aptly titled “Best of All” Lookout. This is what we found there…. A giant cloud, and we were standing right in the middle of it. Even though we couldn’t see the supposedly beautiful scenery, it was still pretty amazing since it was so dense that we couldn’t see anything at all. It was actually a little eerie, like we were literally on the edge of reality and the whole world ended right there in a white haze.
After this lookout, we came back down the mountains a bit and found a number of other lookouts that we could actually look out from, and they were quite pretty.
Art on the Beach
A little something I drew this morning:
Piccolo
This was part of our “morning tea” at Piccolo this morning, right across the street from the beach on the Gold Coast:
Tropical Fruit World!
After Superbee Honeyworld we saw signs directing us to Tropical Fruit World, so of course we followed. We found a large plantation full of tropical fruits, including these awesome avocado trees.
After we left, we continued to look for more “worlds” we could visit, but the best we could find were Cartridge World, Office World, and Sports World (all in the booming little metropolis of Murwillumbah).
Superbee Honeyworld!
This was a discovery we happened upon while exploring the Gold Coast. It’s fairly small (mainly just a gift shop) but there were a number of different honeys to taste and a talking tropical bird named Chuckles.
Surfers Paradise
Now this is a vacation!! Sun, sand, waves… And we even found a parking spot right on the beach, you can’t beat that!
We’re making our way to Nobby’s Beach where we’ll stay the weekend with Karen, Mark, and Mayanna, then we’ll be off to Sydney for a few days early next week.
What a vacation!!
Self Weigh Station
This is an example of a Self Weigh Station located at Child Health Centres all over Australia. Primary care for kids is delivered quite differently here than in the US, basically amounting to fewer Well Child Checks. That, in conjunction with most parents curiosity about their child’s weight, leads to a need for such stations… And they are very well used. I was at this centre for the morning, and I noticed at least 2-3 families per hour coming in to get a weight and then be on their way. Families are also given growth charts in their child’s Personal Health Record at the time of birth and parents are taught how to plot weight, so you can see more plot points for growth. A unique idea that seems to actually work.
Home Visiting
I went on a few home visits with a child health nurse today to check in with some new mums (one had triplets!). This was the setting of our second visit, in an area called Mt. Glorious.
Happy Australia Day!
In honor of Australia Day, I had vegemite toast this morning for breakfast. (Well, really I had half a piece of toast with a tiny bit of vegemite, the other half with just butter and a whole piece with peanut butter and cinnamon-sugar.)
I don’t know what the plans are for the rest of the day, but it should be very patriotic!
