Brisvegas love

So we finally arrived at 11:20 local time in Brisbane, after a four hour flight from Darwin, which was a bit daunting. We were already quite tired from the day before (and the flight before), and yeah we were pretty cranky because of this (especially mrs. A ;)).

We had a slight delay, since there was a fog at the airport's runway, but nothing to worry about, since Michelle, Hube, Mia and Seth picked us up right at the gate (they originally travelled to the international terminal, but since our flight converted to domestic at Darwin...). It was such a lovely and warming welcome. We had some tea and we drove to Ferny Hills.

Mom was amazed by the airport (and so were we, it was completely refurbished from the last time we went), and by the city in general. At home, we were greeted by the cat, and had a lot of good talks. We desperately took a shower and brushed our teeth. Michelle washed our clothes (thank God - we felt sooooo dirty, and I was running out of clothes) and afterwards, we took a quick nap, since we were exhausted. Meanwhile, mom strolled with Hube.

Upon waking up, we prepared ourselves for a ride to Tante Elly's place, where the family waited for us. Oom Dolf, Tante Stien, Tante Elly, Tania, Raymond, Lawrence, Sarah, Charlize, Max, Karl, Ryan and Jade were happy to see us and it was sooo good. We had a big meal right away and chatted a lot, while Tim was very popular with the kids again. Oom Dolf actually spilled his cola (or actually, he missed the glass upon pouring the cola!), so he and tante Elly's pants were all covered. Poor them!

Tim watched the movie Up with the kids, Justin had a long talk with Raymond... it was all so beautiful :). We went back home late at night and called it a day, as we were plain exhausted. It didn't take long before we fell asleep :).

Today, September 25th, we had a full schedule. After breakfast, Michelle took us three to New Farm, a part of the inner city, and as Miche says, known for their active gay community -- apparently, when she and Hube lived there and went to do some groceries, all the males looked at Hube instead of her - they weren't used to that! And they learned that when you take bananas, you should point them downwards to tell you're occupied, and upwards if you're single. Funny story haha :D.

We had a short walk at New Farm Park and then went to Lawrence's place. Michelle left the group again, to bring Mia to a sleepover. Lawrence's house is gorgeous, but they only bought it recently. Lawrence intends to move the house a bit, then renew the entire house, along with its parcel. His temporary studio is already quite a feat! Anyway, we were greeted by Charlize, who played with Tim and I. We also played fetch the ball with Wanda, their dog. We jumped on the trampoline with the other kids, while Anna talked to Lawrence and Sarah, and a few minutes later, Tante Elly came along, too.

It was time to go eat Yamcha with the entire gang at Sunnybank. Cousin Reza had some good stories about it, and so there we go. Tante Elly just kept ordering, and Lawrence just had to tell STOP ORDERING MA! before it went all crazy.

We followed our way to the CBD, where we went to have a drink at starbucks, and went a bit of shopping. Anna and Sarah and the kids were a bit annoyed by a drug user, but remained fine. Justin scored a new Titans jersey (fourth jersey already!), and we ultimately went to Mt Coot-Tha, where we teamed up with Tante Elly again.

We returned at the South Bank again, and split. Tim and Justin were about to meet Cameron and his boyfriend, while Anna, Lawrence, Sarah, Tante Elly, Tania and the kids went for a stroll, a drink and the playgrounds. Cameron is a guy Justin knows from the rhythmic gymnastics community for almost a decade, and actually met in London at the Olympics last month.

We had a great chat and exchanged a lot of stories (not only gymnastics based) while having a drink. Then, we went to eat some ice cream -- it was a special kind of dessert, since we had to pick flavours AND add extra toppings on it, which was then crunched in a cup. It was quite yummy - Tim had bubblegum and cheesecake WITH gummi bears (can you imagine?!) and Justin had Baileys with maracanut and vanilla chocolate). We took a few pictures, had a good laugh, and said goodbye to Cameron and his partner Matt, as they were about to change for a concert of the Scissor Sisters.

Hubert picked us up a few minutes later and teamed up with Mom and the rest. We said goodbye to the gang as Hube drove us to Kangaroo's Point for some good nightshots of the skyline and ultimately went back to Ferny where Michelle has cooked this amazing and yummy cous-cous dinner. We had a lot of fun with Psy's Gangnam Style Video (just go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0 ;) --- Seth and Hube filmed us doing the dance ;)), went to play Mario Kart Wii a bit and now it's time to go to bed.

Tomorrow we'll head for Noosa and have a family gathering in the evening again. Check some photos here below!

Cheers,
On behalf of Tim and Anna,

Justin