Drives out to the wide blue yonder

Another bonus of 'Ekka' week, is the fact that we get a public holiday smack dab in the middle of it on the Wednesday. Just for the show. The other bonus being that as a public servant in a public hospital, I get paid for it, even if I don't work.

Seeing that the last time we had headed off anywhere remotely distant was back in April (on our grand tour of NSW), I had pretty itchy feet when it came to getting back out on the road. And the Ekka public holiday was as good a time as any.

First stop was Boonah, and a great breakfast at Flavours Cafe.

Then on to Mount French National Park to check out the view of the Scenic Rim.

Looking back towards Boonah

Cunningham's Gap

Then on to Condamine Gorge. We travelled down the 'low road' for a bit. The Condamine river is the head of the Murray Darling Basin, which starts in Queensland and ends in South Australia.

Condamine Gorge

Closer shot of the Gorge

This shot is for my mum

Checking out the RTA car

(this is the land of the free range cow)

Sitting by the side of the 'road'

(a glorified cow trail down to the Gorge)

Almost got that itch!

Don't forget me!

When the signs started telling us that this road was only for 'high clearance vehicles' (with 14 river crosses to get to Killarney), we did a u-turn and headed up to the High Road. First stop here was Carr's Lookout, for another great view of the surrounding area.

I think we go that way!

Looking back over the Gap

Glorious rolling hills

It was still fairly early at this point, so after a quick visit to Killarney, we kept driving over to Stanthorpe.

Queen Mary Falls

And we ran into these fine people and stopped for lunch!

My parents, who had taken the EXACT same route we did,

and had almost exactly the same photos!

After lunch we drove off to Girraween National Park and took a scenic drive through the mountains.

It's not called the Granite Belt for nothing!

Large boulders everywhere you turn

On the road again!

Then it was time to head home. But not before stopping at Vincenzo's (the Big Apple), and having the best Apple Pie I've ever had!

It was a beautiful day, and we hope to stay up there for a weekend at some point.

Ekka Excitement

If you've known me any longer than a week, you would know that I am a big fan of cows. There are multiple posts on this blog highlighting that fact.

I also like 'The Ekka'. To the uninitiated, the Ekka is Brisbane's equivalent of The Royal Easter Show or The Melbourne Show. "The country comes to the city" and all that jazz. Usually referred to by naysayers as a waste of money, a breeder of disease and pointless in this day and age.

Well, this post is a great big raspberry to the lot of them!

I LOVE Ekka. I would go to the Ekka every single day of the show if I could. I jumped at the chance to volunteer this year because it meant an extra day there for free. May have meant 5.5 hours standing in a very warm exhibition hall - but it gave me another day at the Ekka.

I'm seriously considering becoming a member of the RNA (the organisation who hosts the Ekka) just so I can get unlimited access. UNLIMITED!!! Imagine that for a second, will you? As many entries to visit the Ekka as I want in 10 days! As close to heaven as I'll get whilst still alive!!!

Have you guessed why I love the Ekka so much?


COWS.

There are literally THOUSANDS of the bovine beasties available for my viewing during the 10 days of Ekka. I drive down the side street every day on my way to work - and there is NOTHING more exciting to me than looking into the barns as I go past and seeing some beautiful bovine backs!

So, I went to the Ekka on Saturday to work; and then yesterday B and I went back for our day of cow perusal (amongst other things).

We had a great time. On arrival we visited the dairy cattle pavilion, where I was then harassed by a baby cow who only wanted to lick me from one end to the other! On exit we visited the Dexter exhibition (a lowline breed that only grows to around hip height), and I began serious conversations as to the purchase of such a beastie. I fell in love with Dexters about 2 years ago, and with a brother in law currently building a house on a few acres in North-East Victoria, I have a strong argument as to why a small herd of Dexter cattle would be a great investment for him and his family.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our day at the Ekka...

Ruby, the 2 day old calf who wanted to lick me half to death!

Then off to the Woolies Pavilion for plenty of free taste testings

and my own version of a 'wine crawl'!

Miss Moo holding court at Dairy Farmers Milking Barn

I got a badge to prove that I milked a cow!

She was a very accommodating cow too!

Another cute baby to cuddle

Oh yeah - we did check out the horses too!

And what would a day to the Ekka be without a Strawberry Sundae?

Video of the concert

Again with a P!nk post; but I thought I might upload video from the evening...

I've gone P!nk!!!!

I don't get out a lot for what are commonly called 'girls nights'. I don't have many girl friends, and those I do have tend to either be right in the middle of nappy season, or have left the country for far off fields like Zimbabwe!

But last night was different. Two women from work and I got all dressed up and gorgeous, and headed off to P!nk.

Oh my goodness. I don't think I've been to a more frenetic, more amazing, BIGGER concert than hers. Whilst nothing will ever top U2 for me, I have to admit their stage makeup looked like child's play compared to hers.

Circus acts. Massive couches & beds. Slippery dips. Circus freaks. Scary clowns. The list just went on! And the costumes, my goodness, elaborate and beautiful.

Tell you what, I might want to take up trapeze work soon! Especially if it gets me a toned stomach like hers!!!

Anyway, enjoy the piccies...

The Stage; looking awesome during 'Bohemian Rhapsody'

One of the lounges as she sang 'Leave me Alone (I'm Lonely)'

Yes, she is singing on that trapeze - 'Get This Party Started' to be precise

Stay tuned for some video!

New Haircut

I've often said I'm not very 'girly'. Hair, makeup, clothes - not something I really spend a lot of time thinking about. They just don't rank highly on my priorities.

However, I do have a favourite hair dresser, and despite it costing a small fortune to get my hair 'remastered', I save up my pennies and get it done once a year.

This time I also went a colour. And here's the final result...

(the colour doesn't show up too well - it's a nice mahogany-tinged red).

My favourite photo

So after tagging a few friends with the 'Who am I' questionnaire, I soon found myself being tagged for another 'please post a part of your life' item.

Beck tagged me and asked for my favourite photo. I have so many 'favourites', but this one wins by a long shot.

Now I know you've all seen this photo, simply because you find it to the right of my blog, just before I do my little snapshot of who I am, and what my passions are.

But I haven't ever really shared the story behind it before.

This was taken in Rwanda back in 2008, in a tiny little village named Kayenzi perched on the side of a mountain.

Rwanda is a part of me. I can quite literally say that my first thought every morning and my last thought every night is about Rwanda and the people I met there. My whole life is directed right now towards getting back there in the near future. There are a lot of tears shed in private due to my longing to be back there. It sounds ridiculous, but Rwanda is my home and I will not rest until I am back there.

I never got to know this little girl's name, but I met her within an hour of being on the ground in Kayenzi. We arrived to a huge circle of little children all singing to us and welcoming us to their home. In her grubby little dress (probably the only 'Sunday' dress she owns) and with her cheeky little smile she made a beeline for me, grabbed my hand, and stole my heart forever.

She was such a shy little girl up until this photo. She just wanted to cuddle with me and rest her hand in mine.

But when Paul got his camera out - she was a star! She was in my arms as he came up to us and she just leant out with this massive grin and left me with a photo that summed up my whole journey in Rwanda.

This photo is my commitment to returning to Rwanda. Every time I look at it I pray over this child and make the thousandth promise to return and see her and play with her again.

Turn around and it's GONE!

Someone PLEASE tell me where June went? Oh my goodness, turn around for five seconds and a whole month passes in a blink of an eye. Now I know my mother always told me that time flew as you got older - but I didn't really think I'd reached the age where a month happens and you barely notice.

So, what was the highlight of my June?

Last Sunday we went to the Multicultural Festival at Annerley Soccer Fields. There were so many different cultures represented and so much to eat, watch and do the whole day that it seemed to fly.

Brad had great fun watching the soccer, and I was able to indulge in everything African once more.

But the highlight of my day BY FAR was meeting the people running the Rwandan Queensland Association food stall. I didn't even know there was a Rwandan association in Queensland!

So I went up to the stall (to order some delicious brochette - man I miss that from Rwanda!), and as they started serving me, out I came with Muraho (hello), Amakuru (how are you) and Nitwa Umufasha (my name is Umufasha - umufasha is a Kinyarwandan word meaning helper, which is what Sascha means).

The poor lady almost fell over! She started crying and hugging me and just couldn't believe an Australian knew her language! I was just so excited to finally talk to someone who understood kinyarwandan, and was so glad she didn't think I was an idiot. She and her male helper wanted to know who had been teaching me, so when I told them I'd visited Rwanda last year, they almost started crying again. It's amazing to me how much being aware of another person's culture can make them so emotional and thankful.

I was on a massive high for the rest of the day, and it really made my year.

Brad had great fun watching the soccer whenever he got tired of walking around stalls with me

This Rwandan girl was so tiny, yet her voice was massive!

These young girls were from the Rwandan Queensland Association, and did their nation proud with cultural dance

Now I know I talk a lot about how much I miss Rwanda and how I would go back in a heartbeat, but to just meet up with a Rwandan family and talk with them really made it so much more clear to me that Rwanda is always going to be a part of me, and will never leave me.