Redcliffe The Sleepy
Without Prejudice
I am at Redcliffe at last, after two weeks with my younger Sister at Beachmere. Dave was here first then George and now me. I love it here, so quiet and peaceful that time almost stops. The sun shines incessantly and this morning two magpies cross the road in front of me. A lucky sign to a lot of people. One for Sorrow, two for Joy and I am sure joyful staying here. The sun and air makes me sleepy, especially at night and I go to bed early which is unheard of for me.
I have a great book to read but sleep instead my eyes not willing to take in even one sentence before they close and I am out like a light. I wake early every day as light comes flooding into my downstairs bedroom and I am forveer grateful to my Brother George for his company and hospitality. he lives in a large house with a massive yard in which I sunbake and relax after writing is over for the day.
I hear the weather report back in Melbourne and smile to myself, so very different to here. Redcliffe was the first property settled on in Quennsland and the Capital eventually became Brisbane which is about 17 miles away as the crow or magpie flies. Redcliife on a Peninsual north of Brisbane and used to be full of retired folk. They are now either in Nursing Homes or traveling the wilds of Australia in camper van or caravan, not giving a shit about plonking themselves in Retirement World.
The Supermarkets on pension day are full and there are chemists galore that offer corn plasters or denture fixatives at discount prices. The grey army driving sales forward. It is a heavenly place to be, no hoons, not a lot of traffic, wide streets and plenty of old shady trees. We used to go to the Trivia nights here and were never quite able as a Family to get the top prize as there were always plenty of retired school teachers here and they tended to trump everyone else at the general knowledge questions. Much to our chagrin.
There are now lovely restaurants in the main street and the view from tables is the wide vista of Moreton Bay stretching out to left and right as far as the eye can see. There are no junkies stumbling down the main thoroughfares, little crime except petty stuff and the nightlife dies off at 8.30 when all the good residents fall asleep in their barcaloungers or in bed. The mornings are always "up early" times and my brother is amongst them, leaving me with precious time to myself to read, write, daydream or shop.
There is an English shop at the back of one of the many arcades in Redcliffe proper and you can purchase dolly mixtures and walnut whips to your hearts content. There is also an authentic English cafe at North Lakes where one can partake of Englisg Fish and Chips served with mushy peas. George went to see Heston Blumenthal last weekend and he talked really fast and was very very interesting so I hear. George showed me a photo of a playing card, lifelike in it s colour and shape, thin as a playing card too but formed from raspberry and white chocolate and I wonder at the level of skill that entails.
We are refugees from broken marriages my Oldest brother and I and we decide together we are not interested in ever being tied up again. We were together as children, David, George and I, running the streets of Wentworthville and Avalon, Main Beach and Canowindra, always together and always outside. We now are companionable older people in our 50's and early sixties. Time has not altered our bond we formed as kids and we don't see why anything would. My brothers are stll my brothers in arms and like to still shock me with pranks and I will be ticking them off just as in the old days.
I am still best friends with both their former wives as I didn't see a valid reason as to why I shouldn't be. No one knows what goes on in a marriage really and it's none of my business anyway. They knew my former husband and both worked for him at some stage in their lives and I am happy if they wanted to be best friends with him if they ever see him again, also. Time healing hurts and differences and as we grow older I want to be around people I trust and love and that is my Family and extended family.
We think alike and we were brought up alike, Jackie being 2 years older than George, he 2 years older than me and me 4 years older than Dave. By the time David and Helen grew up, Ian was in the army and Jamie had died. That now makes up the lot of us siblings and we were all brought up to be fiercely comeptitive and we still can be, but have dropped the sibling rivalries and just admire each others work and lives and that is at last as it it should be.
Ian served in Vitenam and has a son in law serving in the Army now and we all have a nephew who is the same. We are fiercely proud of them volunteering to protect our country and also mighty scared that they might have to go to a war zone. We know that is what they are trained up to do but it still sends a message to my stomach of anxiousness. Ian doesn't like to talk of the War and we are too polite to ask, knowing the subject is a closed chapter for him. He does march on Anzac Day and we attend ceremonies that are both moving and sad on that day as both our parents served in the second World War.
I fervently hope there is never another war. I hope that my great grand child, a boy, Andrej, never goes through war times just as my childrena nd their children did not have to. My children grew up in good times as have my grandchildren. Not for them the damage of war held over as it was for my Mum. We kids had to keep secrets many and varied and that is not a philosophy I follow as a Mum. I have always told my girls I just wanted the truth no matter how bad or scary and I was to rue that statement many a time.
The truth I can handle, deception not. I like to examine things, drag them out in to the light and see what we have. No secret too shameful to not be able to handle. I am the same with them as they are with me and I love them for it. Although as a Mum somethings are just down right scary and I have to pretend to be oh so cool and sometimes I feel like literally running out the door and shrieking. They probably feel like that with me too as I am just a human too.
I am at Redcliffe at last, after two weeks with my younger Sister at Beachmere. Dave was here first then George and now me. I love it here, so quiet and peaceful that time almost stops. The sun shines incessantly and this morning two magpies cross the road in front of me. A lucky sign to a lot of people. One for Sorrow, two for Joy and I am sure joyful staying here. The sun and air makes me sleepy, especially at night and I go to bed early which is unheard of for me.
I have a great book to read but sleep instead my eyes not willing to take in even one sentence before they close and I am out like a light. I wake early every day as light comes flooding into my downstairs bedroom and I am forveer grateful to my Brother George for his company and hospitality. he lives in a large house with a massive yard in which I sunbake and relax after writing is over for the day.
I hear the weather report back in Melbourne and smile to myself, so very different to here. Redcliffe was the first property settled on in Quennsland and the Capital eventually became Brisbane which is about 17 miles away as the crow or magpie flies. Redcliife on a Peninsual north of Brisbane and used to be full of retired folk. They are now either in Nursing Homes or traveling the wilds of Australia in camper van or caravan, not giving a shit about plonking themselves in Retirement World.
The Supermarkets on pension day are full and there are chemists galore that offer corn plasters or denture fixatives at discount prices. The grey army driving sales forward. It is a heavenly place to be, no hoons, not a lot of traffic, wide streets and plenty of old shady trees. We used to go to the Trivia nights here and were never quite able as a Family to get the top prize as there were always plenty of retired school teachers here and they tended to trump everyone else at the general knowledge questions. Much to our chagrin.
There are now lovely restaurants in the main street and the view from tables is the wide vista of Moreton Bay stretching out to left and right as far as the eye can see. There are no junkies stumbling down the main thoroughfares, little crime except petty stuff and the nightlife dies off at 8.30 when all the good residents fall asleep in their barcaloungers or in bed. The mornings are always "up early" times and my brother is amongst them, leaving me with precious time to myself to read, write, daydream or shop.
There is an English shop at the back of one of the many arcades in Redcliffe proper and you can purchase dolly mixtures and walnut whips to your hearts content. There is also an authentic English cafe at North Lakes where one can partake of Englisg Fish and Chips served with mushy peas. George went to see Heston Blumenthal last weekend and he talked really fast and was very very interesting so I hear. George showed me a photo of a playing card, lifelike in it s colour and shape, thin as a playing card too but formed from raspberry and white chocolate and I wonder at the level of skill that entails.
We are refugees from broken marriages my Oldest brother and I and we decide together we are not interested in ever being tied up again. We were together as children, David, George and I, running the streets of Wentworthville and Avalon, Main Beach and Canowindra, always together and always outside. We now are companionable older people in our 50's and early sixties. Time has not altered our bond we formed as kids and we don't see why anything would. My brothers are stll my brothers in arms and like to still shock me with pranks and I will be ticking them off just as in the old days.
I am still best friends with both their former wives as I didn't see a valid reason as to why I shouldn't be. No one knows what goes on in a marriage really and it's none of my business anyway. They knew my former husband and both worked for him at some stage in their lives and I am happy if they wanted to be best friends with him if they ever see him again, also. Time healing hurts and differences and as we grow older I want to be around people I trust and love and that is my Family and extended family.
We think alike and we were brought up alike, Jackie being 2 years older than George, he 2 years older than me and me 4 years older than Dave. By the time David and Helen grew up, Ian was in the army and Jamie had died. That now makes up the lot of us siblings and we were all brought up to be fiercely comeptitive and we still can be, but have dropped the sibling rivalries and just admire each others work and lives and that is at last as it it should be.
Ian served in Vitenam and has a son in law serving in the Army now and we all have a nephew who is the same. We are fiercely proud of them volunteering to protect our country and also mighty scared that they might have to go to a war zone. We know that is what they are trained up to do but it still sends a message to my stomach of anxiousness. Ian doesn't like to talk of the War and we are too polite to ask, knowing the subject is a closed chapter for him. He does march on Anzac Day and we attend ceremonies that are both moving and sad on that day as both our parents served in the second World War.
I fervently hope there is never another war. I hope that my great grand child, a boy, Andrej, never goes through war times just as my childrena nd their children did not have to. My children grew up in good times as have my grandchildren. Not for them the damage of war held over as it was for my Mum. We kids had to keep secrets many and varied and that is not a philosophy I follow as a Mum. I have always told my girls I just wanted the truth no matter how bad or scary and I was to rue that statement many a time.
The truth I can handle, deception not. I like to examine things, drag them out in to the light and see what we have. No secret too shameful to not be able to handle. I am the same with them as they are with me and I love them for it. Although as a Mum somethings are just down right scary and I have to pretend to be oh so cool and sometimes I feel like literally running out the door and shrieking. They probably feel like that with me too as I am just a human too.
