Faces and Places
We have been fortunate to be on the receiving end of some wonderful Aussie hospitality. Many people have been more than helpful in easing us into school and life here in Toowoomba. More than that, however, they have opened their hearts and homes to us and we have made many new friends. It has also made the transition smoother, and as time has passed we've enjoyed BBQs at peoples' houses, weekend breakfasts at cafes on Margaret Street, otherwise known as "Eat Street", casual lunches and dinners, and weekend trips in the company of warm and friendly people.
One of those unforgettable couples is Lyn and Robyn Nuttall, pictured here with Dale. Lyn teaches Grades 4/5 beside Dale at Middle Ridge State School and Robyn teaches Art at Concordia. She is an accomplished artist herself and has some incredible multimedia pieces hanging in their home. They also took us to a morning of folk music at the local RSL Club, sort of like a Legion back home. We enjoyed some really offbeat songs and instruments. One duet, the Goodwills, we then met later over dinner at the Nuttall's house. The Goodwills have a Canadian connection, as she hails from Winnipeg. Funny how so much good musical talent comes from there! Lyn's son is also quite an accomplished singer/songwriter, and Lyn enjoys developing a website that archives songs from the 70s. In mid August we will join the Nuttalls in Noosa, the more northern end of the Sunshine Coast, for a weekend at Robyn's brother's house. It is supposed to be quite the place as Robyn's brother is one of the founding members of Flight Center. We'll know, for just one weekend at least, how the rich and famous live!
Another warm and giving family are the Rummell's: Ian, Sharyn, Elyssa and Alanna. They are a family we met because their eldest daughter, Elyssa, is in Hannah's class at school. Sharyn also teaches one day a week at Jodi's school, Wilsonton. Hannah spends two days a week after school at their house when Dale is in weekly staff meetings (yes, WEEKLY) and another day so he can get a bit of prep work done. We've shared fish and chips
in Southport, Thai take-out on Friday nights, local basketball, BBQs, and some weekend time at both Surfers Paradise and on the Sunshine Coast. The picture of Hannah and Elyssa was taken at a local park, Killarney Springs, where on the last Sunday of every month volunteers run miniature steam trains around the grounds. It's a wonderful play and BBQ area and for just one dollar kids and adults can take a ride on one of these beautifully maintained trains. The Rummells are so typical of all the people we've met - genuine, funny, and outgoing. Hannah and Elyssa have become such good friends, and we have invited the Rummells to come to BC for a true ski holiday sometime in the near future.
Besides his Wallabies jersey, Dale says one other thing he'd like to bring back to Canada are our neighbours across the road, Russell and Judy Zimmerle. Russell and Judy have been a wealth of information and are great company. We've enjoyed many lunches and more than a few rugby league (a working-class version of rugby) games in front of Jo and Phil's plasma TV. We've continued the tradition of dinner and the State of Origin matches, the first of which Dale correctly predicted would be a New South Wales win. He even wore blue, NSW colours, which is like being in GM Place during playoff time cheering for the visiting team. You take your life into your own hands, I tell you! Rugby, like hockey back home, is a religion here. We also catch most of the rugby test matches together, for which Dale wore his only other jersey, an All Blacks one. 
Cheeky fellow. Of course, guess who won that one, too?! Besides rugby, Russell and Judy have also taken us out to Highfields for the markets, to the Cuckoo Clock shop, and to a country pub where large steaks and huge helpings of chips (French Fries) are typical "tucker".
From special faces we move to some special places. One outing we took in Toowoomba was the Japanese Gardens. On Mother's Day, we (and the rest of the city) spent a lovely afternoon enjoying the sunshine and beautifully sculpted gardens out near the University of Southern Queensland. We look forward to visiting again once flowers are in bloom, likely to be sometime in September.
One of those unforgettable couples is Lyn and Robyn Nuttall, pictured here with Dale. Lyn teaches Grades 4/5 beside Dale at Middle Ridge State School and Robyn teaches Art at Concordia. She is an accomplished artist herself and has some incredible multimedia pieces hanging in their home. They also took us to a morning of folk music at the local RSL Club, sort of like a Legion back home. We enjoyed some really offbeat songs and instruments. One duet, the Goodwills, we then met later over dinner at the Nuttall's house. The Goodwills have a Canadian connection, as she hails from Winnipeg. Funny how so much good musical talent comes from there! Lyn's son is also quite an accomplished singer/songwriter, and Lyn enjoys developing a website that archives songs from the 70s. In mid August we will join the Nuttalls in Noosa, the more northern end of the Sunshine Coast, for a weekend at Robyn's brother's house. It is supposed to be quite the place as Robyn's brother is one of the founding members of Flight Center. We'll know, for just one weekend at least, how the rich and famous live!
Another warm and giving family are the Rummell's: Ian, Sharyn, Elyssa and Alanna. They are a family we met because their eldest daughter, Elyssa, is in Hannah's class at school. Sharyn also teaches one day a week at Jodi's school, Wilsonton. Hannah spends two days a week after school at their house when Dale is in weekly staff meetings (yes, WEEKLY) and another day so he can get a bit of prep work done. We've shared fish and chips
in Southport, Thai take-out on Friday nights, local basketball, BBQs, and some weekend time at both Surfers Paradise and on the Sunshine Coast. The picture of Hannah and Elyssa was taken at a local park, Killarney Springs, where on the last Sunday of every month volunteers run miniature steam trains around the grounds. It's a wonderful play and BBQ area and for just one dollar kids and adults can take a ride on one of these beautifully maintained trains. The Rummells are so typical of all the people we've met - genuine, funny, and outgoing. Hannah and Elyssa have become such good friends, and we have invited the Rummells to come to BC for a true ski holiday sometime in the near future.
Besides his Wallabies jersey, Dale says one other thing he'd like to bring back to Canada are our neighbours across the road, Russell and Judy Zimmerle. Russell and Judy have been a wealth of information and are great company. We've enjoyed many lunches and more than a few rugby league (a working-class version of rugby) games in front of Jo and Phil's plasma TV. We've continued the tradition of dinner and the State of Origin matches, the first of which Dale correctly predicted would be a New South Wales win. He even wore blue, NSW colours, which is like being in GM Place during playoff time cheering for the visiting team. You take your life into your own hands, I tell you! Rugby, like hockey back home, is a religion here. We also catch most of the rugby test matches together, for which Dale wore his only other jersey, an All Blacks one. 
Cheeky fellow. Of course, guess who won that one, too?! Besides rugby, Russell and Judy have also taken us out to Highfields for the markets, to the Cuckoo Clock shop, and to a country pub where large steaks and huge helpings of chips (French Fries) are typical "tucker".
From special faces we move to some special places. One outing we took in Toowoomba was the Japanese Gardens. On Mother's Day, we (and the rest of the city) spent a lovely afternoon enjoying the sunshine and beautifully sculpted gardens out near the University of Southern Queensland. We look forward to visiting again once flowers are in bloom, likely to be sometime in September.
Another outing we thoroughly enjoyed was a hike, or should I say climb, up a local mountain, Tabletop. It was the last weekend Lorraine was with us and a beautiful day, so we decided to do something memorable. Tabletop is so named because it is as flat as a tabletop uptop, but the climb was no moderate hike! The only part that is flat is right ontop. It involved some trekking overtop large slabs of basalt and up the sides of steep slopes where there was barely enough room for fingers and toes. Hannah climbed like a regular mountain goat while Lorraine and I admired the large cactus and appreciated the warm weather. If hiking in the middle of winter is like this, I can't say it's a climb I'd venture to take in the height of summer. We were hot and a little sunburnt by the time we reached the bottom again, so we headed up to Picnic Point in 
order to take a photo of the mountain we'd just climbed and for an ice cream.
posted by The MacQuarrie Clan at 8:13 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home