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Dad's 92nd birthday:     Afterwards, at Dad and Rose's:  Edmonton - view of Cairns from Val and Doug's place:    |
Cairns: Dad's birthday
The big birthday bash and much more.
The day had a most welcome leisurely start. We enjoyed our light breakfast
al fresco among the swaying palms, watching many small doves and sparrows
hopping about on the well-kept grass. Across the park road from us, we
noticed vans and buses and other vehicles pulling in, stopping, taking out
their ‘poo’ boxes and emptying them in the official dump before hosing them
out and then driving off. In such a large park, this was a fairly repetitive
if intermittent event and it gave me a chance to observe vehicles and people
and speculate about them, one of my favourite pastimes. Looking in the same
direction, but just beyond the camp boundary was a cane train line. We saw
several trains passing through and I could not resist counting the wagons
full of cane on its way to the mill. One was forty two wagons long. I also
had time to make a few calls home and give myself some attention before
heading off for a solitary walk around the perimeter of the huge park. Soon
I was in the ‘back’ streets. This hidden area is clearly the usual place for
permanents who live in van parks as some of the residents’ houses were
cabins, not vehicles on wheels, and most were surrounded by lush, if small
tropical gardens. One of these was so beautifully arranged and cared for
that I could only stop and examine carefully all the exotic tropical plants
the owner had managed to nurture under the branches of golden cane palms,
noted for their voracious appetite for soil nutrients. I promised myself to
return and have another look, but for now, I had to keep going.
We headed out for Cairns Yacht Club and the birthday bash. There we met with
the women and even Bruce’s son, Andrew, who had happened to be in Cairns on
business that weekend, joined us. Bruce and Andrew drove off to collect
Maurie whose aged and frail wife, Rose, had declined to attend, and once we
were all together again with a Cairns cousin, Anne Roy, we had a convivial
hour or two, chatting, catching up on family gossip, taking photos and
enjoying general family bonhomie. At the end of the party, we all returned
to Maurie’s home where we were glad to spend a little time reminiscing with
both Maurie and Rose in the house where they have always lived. Andrew had
to leave us but after we’d said goodbye to Maurie and Rose, the rest of us
went on to meet a woman who has been extraordinarily kind to both Rose and
Maurie over many years. We had often listened to them speak of her, but now
it was time to meet her.
We drove to the local shopping mall where Ut, a businesswoman and former
Vietnamese refugee [see separate story] owns a very successful take-away
food shop, met us and welcomed us exuberantly and with great warmth. She
summoned her nephew, working for her, to bring us coffee and for a while she
deluged us with her energetic conversation. As we had to leave quite soon
for our next engagement, Ut persuaded us to join her at ‘Charlie’s’, a
downtown restaurant for dinner the next evening. We accepted gratefully and
after making arrangements with Mandy, Sherene and Ena to meet up again later
for drinks with mutual friends, Doug and Val Hudson at Edmonton, we
separated for a short rest.
All too soon, it was time to get going again. We drove the van to the
women’s motel. They were to follow us to our destination, but on the way
there was some delay as they had lost us for a while. Eventually, we all
alighted at the Hudson’s home set in the midst of rainforest. The garden,
virtually destroyed by a cyclone a couple of years before, is now well on
the way to recovery. Other mutual friends were already present, Judy and
Sue. Judy is into teacher training of indigenous students and works mostly
by long-distance conversation though she meets up at regular intervals with
her students. Sue has been a nurse, a pathologist, a horticulturist and in
retail, but as she now has a very bad back, is no longer employed.
Judy and Sue left after an hour or so and the rest of us visitors had to
swallow our dismay that the night was to be much longer than we’d
anticipated. However, our hosts had worked very hard to entertain us so we
all joined in around a festive table and for another hour or two let all
thoughts of the future fade away. Unfortunately, on arriving home and
heading for our en suite, I did not notice a small step downwards in the dim
light and fell over, sprawling ungracefully before leaping to my feet,
shaken but relieved that my ‘rounded’ figure allowed me to bounce and roll
rather than break anything. I was nevertheless disconcerted that I had not
seen the step in the first place and resolved to be more aware of my
surroundings.